Elimination of Macrophages to Improve T cell Therapy in Synovial Sarcoma

Synovial Sarcoma is a soft tissue sarcoma subtype with poor outcomes in the advanced setting. Although it is immunologically “cold,” it generally expresses the highly immunogenic protein NY-ESO-1. Although NY-ESO-1 has been successfully targeted in Synovial Sarcoma using adoptive cellular therapy and vaccine-based approaches, in most cases patient ultimately progress. Our group, as well as others, have identified tumor-infiltrating macrophages as a key inhibitory mechanism in these tumors. In this proposal, we will use both xenograft and ex-vivo organoid models to explore macrophage-manipulating strategies with NY-ESO-1 specific T cells.