7 March, 2023
My name is Dr Melissa Conroy and I am Principal Investigator of the Cancer Immunology Research Group in the Trinity St James’s Cancer Institute. I am also a course coordinator and lead several strands of cancer education in the School of Medicine at Trinity College Dublin.
My translational research focuses on identifying and developing new treatments for people with low survival cancer, with a particular focus on cancers of the oesophagus and brain. My team are working to develop a type of drug known as an immunotherapy. Immunotherapies are drugs that help overcome a weakened immune system in cancer. These drugs help the patient immune system to destroy the cancer and are already transforming outcomes for several patient cohorts.
Why cancer research? While significant strides have been made in enhancing cancer patient survivorship, many people with “hard-to-treat” cancers continue to face low survival rates. This is particularly true for oesophageal cancer patients of whom only around 1-in-5 will survive past 5 years. The outcomes for brain cancer patients are also extremely poor and many do not survive past 14 months. As a cancer immunologist, the goal of my research is to increase cancer patient survivorship through the development of new and innovative immunotherapies.
Challenges for cancer research. In our patient-oriented research, we strive to uncover the best approach to treat cancer, improve care and prolong patient survival. It can take many years and enormous effort from large multidisciplinary teams to transition from identifying a drug target to developing new cancer drugs and subsequently, ensuring that they are both safe and effective. Fortunately, Trinity St James’s Cancer Institute is a centre of research excellence integrating scientific and medical expertise, and importantly linking patients with the research teams. To develop safe and effective drugs, we must perform basic research to gain a greater understanding of the biology underlying each cancer type. This depends on external funding from charities, industry and government bodies and it is imperative that both basic and translational research are supported.
Successes in this role. My research group have shown that important anti-cancer immune cells called natural killer (NK) cells are pulled into the fat by a molecule called fractalkine in obese oesophageal cancer patients. Once in the fat, NK cells are profoundly changed and die and therefore cannot reach or destroy the tumour. Importantly, my team have identified that a drug called a CX3CR1 antagonist blocks fractalkine from pulling NK cells into the fat. With funding from Breakthrough Cancer Research and 5ForTheFight, my research group are performing preclinical studies to evaluate whether this new therapy can free NK cells to move towards and kill oesophageal tumours. Ultimately, my team and I will confirm whether 2 new therapeutic approaches hold potential to improve survival in oesophageal cancer.
Best advice you can give people for International Women’s Day. 1-in-2 of us will develop cancer in our lifetime and cancer research is essential to improve cancer patient care and survival. My advice would be to access the information on the St. James’s Hospital and TSJCI website and look up key charity websites such as CROSS, Breakthrough Cancer Research, Oesophageal Cancer Fund and the Irish Cancer Society to find out how you can become involved and/or support cancer research today.