The immune system is the defender of our body fighting off germs, viruses, and disease. Unfortunately, tumor cells can block the natural immune response. “The body’s immune system is very good at identifying cells that are acting strangely. These include cells that could develop into tumors or cancer in the future,” explained Federica Eduati, PhD, from the department of biomedical engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology. “Once detected, the immune system strikes and kills the cells.” However, this is not always the case, as tumors may escape from the immune system. Now, researchers at the Eindhoven University of Technology report they have combined machine learning with immunotherapy to find hidden tumors cells in the human body.

Their findings are published in the journal Patterns in a paper titled, “Interpretable systems biomarkers predict response to immune-checkpoint inhibitors.”

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