Epigenetic therapy to sensitize patients with advanced NSCLC to chemotherapy and immunotherapy targeting reversal of immune tolerance

The team had found in an earlier study that epigenetic therapy appears to sensitize patients to subsequent treatments including chemotherapy, and very excitingly, to immunotherapy, targeting reversal of immune tolerance. 

Two new clinical trials will investigate an approach to reverse gene silencing associated with increased tumor growth using DNA methyltransferase inhibitor (azacitidine) and histone deacetylase inhibitor (entinostat). The first clinical trial will investigate the proposed therapy to address chemoresistance and the second trial will sensitize patients for immunotherapies. If validated, the study could in a delimited time span, introduce new therapies to radically alter the management of cancers like NSCLC.