Tumour cells and immune cells interact with each other and can inhibit or promote their growth.
Within a tumour, not all tumour cells are the same, but can have different properties, e.g. DNA
mutations or proteins. All cancer cells with the same properties are called a tumour clone and
may have a growth advantage or disadvantage over other tumour clones. This may be due to
the fact that these changes in the cancer cells are recognized as harmful by the body`s own
immune cells which then eliminate the cancer cells. However, it is also possible that a mutation
has an advantage for the cancer cell, e.g. because the mutation affects a gene that is important
for the activation of immune cells, rendering them inactive. Thus, the tumour clone can
proliferate and is not eliminated by the immune system. Tumour cells can use various
mechanisms to evade detection by immune cells. They can do this either by "hiding" from the
immune system or by suppressing the immune cells. Tumour clones that successfully use such
a mechanism have an evolutionary advantage over other tumour cells. Such a tumour clone
will grow and defend itself optimally against killing by immune cells. A change in the clonal
composition of the tumour is therefore also reflected in the immune response, which is
responsible for the outgrowth of certain clones. In this project, this clonal tumour evolution and
the changes in immune cells (especially T cells) are investigated. We will analyse how
suppression and escape from the immune response works and which properties of tumour
cells are responsible for the influence on T cells. With this knowledge, new treatment
approaches, which aim at making the tumour more visible to immune cells or activating the T-
cells, can be developed.