​Par Nicolas CHUVIN
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center - Seattle

Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDA), the most common form of pancreas cancer, is a lethal disease with a 5-year survival rate of less than 5%. Late diagnosis, early metastatic dissemination and resistance to conventional therapies are mostly responsible for this poor prognosis. Although the development of immune checkpoint inhibitors brought new hopes for cancer patients, clinical trials using these strategies against PDA failed. Thus, it is primordial to understand PDA’s immune composition at baseline and to evaluate the potential of new therapies, including immune modulators, in preclinical models that are likely to predict response at the clinical stage. We used a genetically engineered mouse model faithfully recapitulating human PDA to assess the effect of immune modulators, as single agents or in combination, on the tumor immune composition. Extensive immunophenotyping at different timepoints revealed highly dynamic populations and potential therapeutic windows for additional combinatorial treatments in order to activate further the antitumor immune system.