BRC researchers receive funding to improve patients’ lives during and after cancer treatment

Researchers supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre: Birmingham have secured funding for two new projects to better understand and reduce the side effects of cancer immunotherapy – helping patients to live better during and after treatment.

The funding, awarded by the Medical Research Foundation as part of a UK-wide investment in nine new studies, supports Birmingham teams to advance safer, more personalised cancer care.

Despite survival rates for cancer reaching a record high, treatment is often aggressive, with side effects that impact patients’ mental and physical health. Immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that works by stimulating the immune system to recognise and attack cancer cells. While it has transformed outcomes for many patients, it can also trigger the immune system to damage healthy tissues, leading to serious side effects.

The two projects will explore why these effects occur, how they impact different parts of the body, and how to identify which patients are most at risk.

Professor Ye Htun Oo, Professor of Autoimmune Liver Diseases and Translational Hepatology at the University of Birmingham, will lead research investigating how the liver is damaged by the effects of checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy – a type of immunotherapy treatment which blocks checkpoint proteins that stop the immune system from attacking the cancer cells.

Professor Oo, a liver expert working at the University’s Centre for Liver and Gastrointestinal Research and as part of the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC): Birmingham’s Inflammatory Liver Disease research theme, will coordinate a multi-disciplinary team including Dr Amber Bozward, Dr Kayani Kayani and Professor Gary Middleton.

We will explore the mechanistic reasons why these different types of checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapies cause untoward side effects in human liver, gut and skin as well as explore immune predictors and how we can rescue this injury with regulatory T cells for patients.

Professor Ye Htun Oo, University of Birmingham

Professor Oo said: “Our multidisciplinary team will explore the mechanistic reasons why these different types of checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapies cause untoward side effects in human liver, gut and skin as well as explore immune predictors and how we can rescue this injury with regulatory T cells for patients.”

Dr Claire Palles, Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham, and member of the NIHR BRC: Birmingham Cancer Inflammation theme, will lead research aiming to develop a new test to identify a person’s risk of suffering side effects of immunotherapy. 

Based on a comprehensive analysis of health data from patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors, this new test would be taken by the patient before treatment begins to assess their risk of benefitting from treatment versus suffering from side effects. This will help to better tailor cancer treatments to patients on an individual basis.

Our findings will help use these groundbreaking treatments more safely – reducing serious side effects – and increase each patient’s chance of benefiting.

Dr Claire Palles, University of Birmingham

Dr Palles said: “For the past five years, we’ve collected 3,000 samples and linked data from patients receiving a cancer treatment called immune checkpoint inhibitors. The commitment of patients and clinical teams has been crucial to the project’s success, and thanks to funding from the Medical Research Foundation, we can now analyse these samples.

Our findings will help use these groundbreaking treatments more safely – reducing serious side effects – and increase each patient’s chance of benefiting.”