Wed, Jan 14, 2026 page2

• Study shows traits in cancer cells help tumors resist drugs

  • By Jonathan Chin / Staff writer, with CNA
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  Researchers have identified adaptive traits in cancer cells that help tumors resist immunotherapy drugs after extended targeted treatment, revealing new hurdles to effective cancer treatment.

  A research team at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University discovered that immunotherapy’s success rate for head-and-neck tumors drops following prolonged exposure to cetuximab, a key drug in targeted therapies, the university said in a statement.

  The team found that “therapeutic stress” might prompt cancer cells to produce an inflammatory mediator to block the immune system’s neural pathways, the statement said.

  

  National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University professor of clinical medicine Yang Muh-hwa, front, and other researchers pose for a photograph at a lab in Taipei’s Beitou District in an undated photograph.

  Photo courtesy of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University

  The study, “Therapeutic stress triggers tumor STAT1 acetylation to disarm immunotherapy,” was published in Cell Reports Medicine journal on Nov. 18, the university said.

  After being subjected to extended immunotherapy, cancer cells release tumor necrosis factor-alpha, triggering a previously unknown process named STAT1 lysine 637 acetylation, which disrupts the function of interferon gamma, the statement said.

  The interferon is crucial to the immune system’s functioning and declining responsiveness to it results in “interferon fatigue,” a mechanism that reduces the effectiveness of targeted therapy, it said.

  Fatigued immune cells lose their aggression toward the tumor, it said.

  In a related study conducted in collaboration with Academia Sinica, the team also observed that cancer cells produced the ribonuclease 1 enzyme, a substance that suppresses T lymphocytes, or T-cells, which fight cancer and other diseases, the university said.

  The mechanism is seen in liver, breast and head-and-neck cancers, suggesting a common explanation for tumors capable of escaping detection and response by the immune system, it said.

  The research conducted with Academia Sinica, “Ribonuclease 1 induces T-cell dysfunction and impairs CD8+ T-cell cytotoxicity to benefit tumor growth through hijacking STAT1,” was published in the Advanced Science journal on April 3 last year, the university said.

  The National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University study shows that cancer cells are surprisingly adaptable to medical strategies and can develop countermeasures that defeat attempts at treatment, the statement said, quoting Yang Muh-hwa (楊慕華), a professor of clinical medicine who headed the university’s research team and was a corresponding author of the Academia Sinica study.

  Understanding the mechanisms tumors employ to defeat immunotherapy — which is hailed as a milestone in cancer treatment — would help doctors use biomarker-guided sequences and combinations to improve outcomes, Yang said.
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