Corriere.it features an in-depth article on the findings of a study coordinated by Raffaella Di Micco, Associate Professor of Pathology at the Scuola Universitaria Superiore IUSS Pavia and Group Leader at the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy (SR-Tiget), which opens up new perspectives on understanding the response to chemotherapy in acute myeloid leukemia.

The study, published in the scientific journal Nature Communications and also supported by Fondazione AIRC, identified a mechanism through which chemotherapy can alter cancer cells that survive treatment, making them, in some cases, more easily recognized by the immune system.

The researchers observed that, in a subset of samples from patients with acute myeloid leukemia, some leukemia cells enter a state of cellular senescence following chemotherapy. In this state, the cells stop proliferating but remain metabolically active, changing their behavior.

In particular, cells showing a strong senescence response display increased expression of HLA molecules on their surface. These molecules play a key role in enabling T cells to recognize abnormal cells and activate an immune response against them.

Read the full article published on su Corriere.it – Salute.