Investigation of pancreatic tumor cell intrinsic differences in capacity to activate tumor-specific T cells

Abstract

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA), is the most common form of pancreatic cancer which can be modeled in mice. There are two district morphological types of PDA cells: cuboidal and mesenchymal. In this line of experimentation, it has been found that both cell types do not activate T cells from endogenous antigen sources, however, when a peptide is presented to these cells they can activate T cells. Based on this information future experiments need to be conducted, including determining if peptide processing machinery is present in PDA cells. With this information novel immunotherapy techniques can be developed to destroy PDA cells and eliminate the cancer.