According to recent and predictive data from the European Cancer Information System, the incidence of cancer within the EU is expected to rise by 20% by 2040. As cancer is a highly heterogeneous disease, its treatment is challenging and there is a desperate need for more effective cancer therapeutics. A new promising avenue in cancer therapy is immunotherapy, which involves the modulation of the immune system to activate it so it can kill cancer cells. One approach to this is by polarizing macrophages to a more inflammatory phenotype. To achieve this, new drugs are being developed. However, it is likely that already established drugs, that have been approved for other purposes, may unknowingly posses this property. This project is the continuation of our ongoing research, where we screen and evaluate commonly used drugs for their macrophage-polarizing potential. Due to promising results from our initial screens, we have expanded our selection from previously 340 to 1163 commonly used drugs to investigate their macrophage-polarizing properties. Our hope is to find new candidates for potential off-label treatment use, thereby increasing adjuvant treatment modalities for cancer patients or those suffering from other immunological diseases.

2024

2026