"The next step was the most challenging," Couto admits."In order to see how levels of these IgG-positive EVs in patients change during the course of treatment, we had to collect 20-30 blood samples from the same patient over many months. Without the help of the patients, nurses, clinicians, and pathologists at the Champalimaud Clinical Centre, this study would simply not have been possible.
"We were very excited to see such a close correlation between these vesicles and therapy response," says Costa-Silva."We now have a more reliable tool to assess, and improve, the efficacy of PDAC treatments, and to reduce the unnecessary and harmful side effects of ineffective ones.""This finding made me change the direction of my lab," asserts Costa-Silva.
"If very aggressive cancers like PDAC use EVs to disarm the immune system, we can develop new therapies to target tumor-derived EVs and make these cancers less resistant to treatment," notes Costa-Silva. His team is now investigating whether proteins expressed by EVs in other cancer types also interact with molecules of the immune system.
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