Stefani Spranger on β-Catenin Signaling and Overcoming Immunotherapy Resistance

Stefani Spranger, PhD, University Chicago Melanoma Intrinsic β-Catenin Committee, discusses the effect of melanoma intrinsic β-catenin signaling on immune exclusion and resistance to immunotherapies.

Melanoma intrinsic β-catenin, once its activated in melanoma, can mediate the exclusion of the immune system, says Spranger. Previous research has shown that t-cells can be used as predictive biomarker for the response rate of anti-PD-1 therapies.

When melanoma patients were segregated into those with a low t-cell gene signature and those with a high t-cell gene signature it was determined that the patients that did not have t-cells in their tumor microenvironment had β-catenin signaling, says Spranger.

Research on this topic is preliminary, says Sparnger, but once it is determined how the β-catenin pathway can be inhibited, it is possible to overcome resistance to immunotherapies.