New Tool Links Immune Cell Disruption in Blood to Cancer Outcomes: Study Reveals - Video

The immune systems of cancer patients are highly disrupted, with those who have a higher number of immune cells in their blood having a better survival rate, finds a new study, published in Nature Genetics.

The tool is called Immune Lymphocyte Estimation from Nucleotide Sequencing (ImmuneLENS). It enables researchers to calculate the proportion of T cells and B cells (types of immune cell) from whole genome sequencing (WGS) data for the first time.

Whole genome sequencing (WGS) uses a blood sample to create a complete record of an individual’s DNA, the genetic instructions that determine who they are. By understanding these instructions, scientists can find out important information such as how many immune cells a person has, if there are any changes in their genes, and how their body is combating disease. This can be helpful for studying genetic illnesses such as cancer.

They found that cancer patients had a lower proportion of T cells circulating in the blood compared to healthy individuals. Further, T cell proportion was found to be a strong predictor of cancer outcomes, with higher proportions associated with 47% fewer deaths over a five-year period after surgery.

Professor Nicholas McGranahan, senior author of the study from UCL Cancer Institute, said: “Most immune system analysis until now has focused on the tumour itself, so the results we’re seeing using this new technique – which examines the number of immune cells in a person’s blood – are of considerable interest. What’s going on with immune cells in the blood seems to have a huge impact on cancer survival and may be able to predict how long a cancer patient will survive better than the number of T cells in the tumour alone.

Ref: Bentham, R., Jones, T.P., Black, J.R.M. et al. ImmuneLENS characterizes systemic immune dysregulation in aging and cancer. Nat Genet (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-025-02086-5