Mechanisms of Cancer Resistance to Immunogenic Cytotoxicity

The majority of cancer patients do not respond to immunotherapy. In order to systematically discover pathways promoting cancer cell resistance to effector immune cells, we generated immunity-resistant Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma cell lines. We utilized RNA-Seq to determine what are the genes and pathways that are significantly altered when cancer cells become resistant to effectors. Overall design: RNA-Seq was performed on four cell lines, including two biologic replicates of wildtype and immune-resistant PCI-13 cells. The two immune-resistant PCI-13 cell lines were generated separately using the same protocol described in the manuscript.