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Colorectal cancer

Overcoming Immunotherapy Resistance in Colon Cancer: PRaG Therapy Shows Promise

Strategic Insights

— 1 min read

A new study from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University in Suzhou, People's Republic of China, has evaluated the efficacy of PRaG therapy, a combination of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)/programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitors, radiotherapy, and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, in overcoming resistance to immunotherapy in microsatellite-stable metastatic colorectal cancers (mCRCs). Researchers found that PRaG therapy had a higher objective response rate (20.0%) and longer median progression-free survival (4.5 months) compared to chemotherapy or tyrosine kinase inhibitor-based combination therapies. CD8 + T cell counts and IL-17A levels were identified as key prognostic markers for PRaG therapy.

Key Takeaways:

  • **95% of metastatic colorectal cancers (mCRCs) exhibit microsatellite stability (MSS) and proficiency in DNA mismatch repair (pMMR), leading to resistance to immunotherapy.**
  • **PRaG therapy, a combination of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors, radiotherapy, and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, showed potential advantages over chemotherapy or tyrosine kinase inhibitors in treating mCRCs.**
  • **The PRaG therapy group had a higher objective response rate (20.0%) and longer median progression-free survival (4.5 months) compared to other combination therapies.**
  • **CD8 + T cell counts and IL-17A levels were identified as key prognostic markers for PRaG therapy.**
  • **The study enrolled 101 patients and categorized them into three groups: a PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor combined with chemotherapy group (n = 35), a tyrosine kinase inhibitor group (n = 36), and a PRaG therapy group (n = 30).**
  • **The research has been peer-reviewed and published in Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy.**

Statistics:

  • **95% of metastatic colorectal cancers (mCRCs) exhibit microsatellite stability (MSS) and proficiency in DNA mismatch repair (pMMR).**
  • **20.0% objective response rate was achieved in the PRaG therapy group.**
  • **4.5 months was the median progression-free survival for patients receiving PRaG therapy.**
  • **101 patients were enrolled in the study and categorized into three groups.**

Sources:

  • Efficacy of PRaG therapy in microsatellite-stable metastatic colorectal cancer: a comparative analysis of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor-based combination therapies. Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy, 2025;74(11):327.
  • Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy can be contacted at: Springer, One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, Ny, United States. (Springer - www.springer.com; Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy - www.springerlink.com/content/0340-7004/)

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