{
  "id": 12220332,
  "title": "Making pediatric cancer more 'visible' boosts immunotherapy response",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/05/making-pediatric-cancer-more-visible-boosts-immunotherapy-response",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-10-05T20:00:02.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Medical Xpress",
    "slug": "medical-xpress",
    "url": "https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-10-pediatric-cancer-visible-boosts-immunotherapy.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "High-risk neuroblastoma, a rapidly growing solid tumor in children originating in the nervous system, remains a challenging disease with limited treatment options. Recent advancements in targeted immunotherapy have improved survival rates, but cancer cells can still evade the immune system, leading to relapse or resistance. Researchers from Penn State College of Medicine have discovered a novel strategy to enhance the effectiveness of immunotherapy in treating neuroblastoma. By blocking a single protein, PIK3C3/VPS34, they were able to raise levels of GD2, a target molecule for neuroblastoma immunotherapy, on the surface of tumor cells. This, in turn, made the tumors more visible to antibodies, increasing their vulnerability to anti-GD2 immunotherapy. The study, published in the journal Autophagy, also revealed that VPS34 plays a crucial role in the survival and response of neuroblastoma tumors to immunotherapy. Inhibiting VPS34, either alone or in combination with monoclonal antibodies, showed promising results in cell experiments and mouse models. The findings suggest that targeting VPS34 could potentially boost the effectiveness of anti-GD2 immunotherapies, such as dinutuximab and naxitamab, in treating neuroblastoma.",
  "summary": "High-risk neuroblastoma is one of the most aggressive forms of solid tumors affecting children, originating in the nervous system. While a newer class of targeted immunotherapy drugs has improved survival rates, according to the American Cancer Society, cancer can hide from the immune system, causing patients to relapse or develop resistance to treatment. Now, a team of researchers from Penn…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}