Published in Nature Immunology, the researchers have developed a computational tool to identify these anti-cancer immune cells which could lead to improved, personalised immunotherapies. Most immunotherapies only work for a minority of patients – researchers are urgently working to expand the group of patients who could benefit from them.
Scientists at the University of Oxford’s Department of Biochemistry, the Institute of Cancer Research, London, and the University of Cambridge, took biopsies from patients with breast cancer and used a technique called B cell receptor sequencing to identify genetic variations in the B cells.