University of Galway research a step forward in improving immune responses to bowel cancer

Researchers at the University of Galway have taken a step forward in improving patient immune responses to bowel cancer.

The team is working with a US company that is developing a drug that could be combined successfully with the Galway research.

While immunotherapy has great promise in treating cancer patients, researchers found it does not work for most bowel cancer patients.

The team set out to find out why that was and discovered that stromal cells in patients can work against the immune system by producing sugar molecules.

Associate Professor at the University of Galway, Dr Aideen Ryan, explains what this means: