Immune Cells Hunt, Destroy Tumors in Mice Study

Technique transforms immune cells into cancer-seeking bloodhounds, overcoming roadblock in immunotherapy for solid tumors

Mar. 24, 2026 at 11:44am

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A new study by Stanford Medicine researchers has found a technique that transforms immune cells into cancer-seeking bloodhounds, potentially overcoming a roadblock that has hampered immunotherapy for solid tumors. The approach equips certain types of immune cells with proteins on their surfaces that can recognize byproducts of cancer cells' abnormal metabolism, stimulating the immune cells to migrate toward the tumor.

Why it matters

CAR-T cell therapy has transformed the treatment of several blood cancers, but has been less successful in patients with solid tumors. The problem is that too few T cells are able to infiltrate solid tumors. This new technique aims to address that issue by engineering immune cells to recognize and track down cancer cells based on the metabolic byproducts they release.

The details

The researchers used a genetic engineering technique called CRISPR to activate genes in human natural killer (NK) cells that allowed them to recognize and migrate toward specific metabolites released by cancer cells. They found six genes encoding receptors, called tumor-homing GPRs (thGPRs), that consistently enabled NK cells to better infiltrate breast and ovarian tumors in animal models. Equipping NK, CAR-NK, CAR-T, and other tumor-reactive T cells with one of these thGPRs, GPR183, led to significantly better tumor control and survival in mice with breast cancer.

  • The study was published on March 23, 2026.

The players

Livnat Jerby

The senior author of the research and an assistant professor of genetics at Stanford University.

Young-Min Kim

The lead author of the study and a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University.

Stanford Medicine

The institution where the research was conducted.

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What they’re saying

“We found that when we equip immune cells with receptors that sense metabolites released by cancer cells, they can sense the tumor, migrate toward it, infiltrate it and control tumor growth, which markedly enhances the survival of mice with human breast and ovarian cancers.”

— Livnat Jerby, Assistant Professor of Genetics

What’s next

Jerby and her lab members are now investigating whether the tumor-homing GPRs can be modified to recognize other tumor metabolites or to have immune cells interpret tumor metabolites as "on switches" to become killing machines only in the tumor. They are also moving toward testing the GPR183-engineered cells in clinical trials and testing the other tumor-homing GPRs for their therapeutic potential.

The takeaway

This new technique that transforms immune cells into cancer-seeking bloodhounds by equipping them with receptors that recognize metabolic byproducts of cancer cells represents a promising approach to overcoming a key limitation of immunotherapy for solid tumors - the inability of immune cells to effectively infiltrate and attack the tumor.