Project: Gender difference in side effects of immunotherapy: a possible clue to optimize cancer treatment
| Acronym | G-DEFINER (Reference Number: GNP-167) |
| Project Topic | Sex plays a role in cancer incidence and progression, response to therapy and chemotherapy adverse reactions. Accumulating evidences support the existence of sex-driven differences in immune responses as potential factors contributing to disease outcome and response to therapy. Increasing use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) is associated with immune-related adverse events (irAEs) caused by non-specific activation of the immune system. We will conduct a multicenter prospective observational study investigating sex differences in irAEs in relation to genetic, immunological and hormonal profiles. The study will include ICI treated patients with different tumor types. We hypothesize that sex specific profiles may explain differential incidence of irAEs, and aim at: estimating and comparing the irAEs incidence in F and M; estimating irAEs incidence according to different clinical features and gender dimension; identifying genetic/immunological/hormonal profiles associated with sex-related and menopausal status-related differences in irAES occurrence; developing irAEs predictive tools based on selected clinical characteristics, possibly complemented by genetic, immunological and hormonal features. The proposal represents a step towards a personalized-approach considering sex differences in irAEs occurrence to improve toxicity prevention and management. By focusing on biological F/M differences possibly affecting discrepant irAEs incidence, we explicitly address sex inequality, complemented by the exploration of association between gender dimension and irAEs development. |
| Website | visit project website |
| Network | GENDER NET Plus |
| Call | 1st Joint Call on Gender and UN Sustainable Development Goals |
Project partner
| Number | Name | Role | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori | Coordinator | Italy |
| 2 | St Vincent’s Hospital/University College Dublin | Partner | Ireland |
| 3 | Oslo University Hospital – The Radium Hospital | Partner | Norway |
| 4 | the Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital | Partner | Sweden |