The Sarhan group studies how treatment-resistant solid tumors escape immune control through spatial immune organization, sex-dependent macrophage programs and impaired innate immune memory. We focus on macrophage-centered immune niches in GI-tract cancers, including pancreatic cancer, and adaptive NK-cell memory for durable immunotherapy in ovarian cancer and other solid tumors. Our goal is to identify targetable immune states for precise, durable and sex-informed cancer immunotherapy.
Photo: Dhifaf SarhanThe Tumor Immunology & Immunotherapy Group aim to fill the knowledge gap about differences in sex-specific immune responses and how these contribute to the response to immunotherapy.
Photo: Dhifaf Sarhan.The Tumor Immunology & Immunotherapy Group's exploration of a new subset of NK cells so called adaptive NK cells (aNK cells) in solid tumors.
Photo: Dhifaf SarhanThis project investigates the molecular pathways through which tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP), secreted by tumor-associated macrophages and cancer cells, stimulates cancer progression, focusing on identifying targets to inhibit this tumor-promoting interaction.
Photo: Getty Images,Getty Images/iStockphotoImmunotherapy for pancreatic cancer has limited effect and differs between men and women. KI researchers have now found a possible explanation for this sex difference.
Photo: Stefan ZimmermanDhifaf Sarhan, PhD, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, discusses the differences in the tumor microenvironment between female and male patients with pancreatic cancer at the 36th Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
Immunotherapy is an effective form of therapy for different types of cancer, but for pancreatic cancer, its effect is limited and differs between men and women. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now found a possible explanation for this sex difference.
Photo: Getty ImagesResearchers have uncovered a unique ability of a special subtype of natural killer cells in the immune system, called adaptive NK cells, to remember ovarian tumours and effectively attack them. The discovery could pave the way for new, more powerful immunotherapies for difficult-to-treat cancers.
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