Overview

• Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have demonstrated that adaptive natural killer (aNK) cells can remember ovarian tumors and effectively target them.
• The study challenges the long-held belief that NK cells lack memory, showing that aNK cells retain tumor-specific signals and enhance their cytotoxic activity.
• Advanced single-cell RNA and gene expression mapping were used to analyze how aNK cells interact with ovarian cancer cells, providing detailed mechanistic insights.
• The discovery, published in *Cancer Immunology Research*, could lead to the development of powerful new immunotherapies for hard-to-treat cancers like ovarian cancer.
• Next steps include scaling up aNK cell production and launching clinical trials to evaluate their impact on patient survival rates.