The scientific journal Cancer Research publishes a work of specialists of the research center Médica Aplicada (CIMA) and the Clínica Universidad de Navarra which identifies a new target for cancer treatment in vascular cells.

This is a complex finding that Dr. Ignacio Melero, director of laboratory of Immunology of CIMA and specialist of department of Oncology of the Clinic, compares to "a key to open the doors of the tumor to the immune system".

As he explains, they have discovered a "new mechanism of action of the antibodies directed against the CD137 receptor whose activity until now was only known in relation to the activation of the cells of the immune system itself. It has been observed that the blood vessels of the tumor also have this receptor, unlike the blood vessels in the rest of the body. This is a consequence of hypoxia (leave oxygen concentration) in the tumor tissues".

Dr. Ignacio Melero emphasizes that activation of the CD137 receptor in the capillaries sets in motion a series of mechanisms that favor the entrance of effector cells (which execute the response) of the immune system with the capacity to destroy the tumor. "Therefore, stimulation of this receptor on the one hand amplifies the immune response and, on the other, acts by facilitating the entrance of lymphocytes with tumoricidal capacity, "opening the doors" of the malignant tissue."

This finding, developed at partnership with business Bristol Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals in Princeton (USA), is important for the progress of clinical trials (Phase I/II) that this company is conducting with a monoclonal antibody that activates CD137 in patients with melanoma and other types of tumors.