New research led by scientists in Ireland has uncovered how a fat-rich fluid found in the abdomen of ovarian cancer patients can weaken the immune system, making it harder for the body to fight off the disease.
This fluid, known as ascites, often builds up in large amounts in patients with advanced ovarian cancer.
Beyond causing discomfort and spreading cancer cells, it also appears to interfere with the body’s natural defenses.
More than 70% of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer are already at an advanced stage, when large volumes of ascites are commonly present.
This fluid creates a harsh environment in the abdomen that not only supports the growth and spread of cancer but also significantly weakens immune cells that would normally attack tumors.
Researchers from Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin have been studying how ascites affects the immune system.
Their main focus has been on natural killer (NK) cells and T cells—two types of immune cells that are crucial for detecting and destroying cancer cells.
What they found was surprising: the fat molecules in ascites, called phospholipids, seem to block the normal function of these immune cells.
Dr. Karen Slattery, a Research Fellow at the Trinity Translational Medicine Institute and the first author of the study, explained that these phospholipids disrupt the metabolism of NK cells, stopping them from effectively killing cancer cells.
In simple terms, the immune cells are surrounded by fat molecules that prevent them from doing their job.
Even more promising, the researchers discovered that if they block the uptake of these fat molecules into the immune cells, the NK cells regain their ability to attack cancer.
This breakthrough suggests that targeting this fat-induced suppression could be a new way to treat ovarian cancer, potentially allowing the immune system to fight back more effectively.
The research was published in Science Immunology and led by Dr. Slattery, along with senior author Professor Lydia Lynch, who is now based at Princeton University.
Professor Lynch described the findings as a major step forward in understanding why ovarian cancer is so hard to fight. According to her, the study reveals a key mechanism behind the disease’s aggressiveness and poor survival rates.
This new understanding of how fat-rich fluid in the abdomen suppresses immune function could lead to new therapies that restore the body’s natural defenses. By blocking the harmful effects of these phospholipids, future treatments might help the immune system better recognize and destroy cancer cells, improving outcomes for many patients with ovarian cancer.
The researchers are hopeful that this discovery could pave the way for new immunotherapy approaches that empower the body’s own defenses, offering fresh hope for those battling this challenging disease.
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