# Researchers find 11 shared T cell receptor families in data from 150,000 cancer patients, nine of them new

- Published: 2026-11-05 13:48 UTC
- Section: Life & Health › Medicine
- Tags: T cell receptor discovery, public T cell receptors, cancer immunotherapy, bulk RNA sequencing, mutated KRAS, human papillomavirus, clinical genomics data, tumour antigens, Science Translational Medicine
- URL: https://realtech.media/news/rt-488b918e058240697d4320d6_researchers_find_11/

**A pipeline applied to clinical genomics data from over 150,000 patients with advanced cancer found T cell receptors shared across patients. It points to routine clinical data as a source for immunotherapy discovery.**

![Researchers find 11 shared T cell receptor families in data from 150,000 cancer patients, nine of them new](https://sgzwpqqelzmajkcubgkl.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/rt-media/2026/11/29e213d8a9ba772b.jpg)
*Arora, Leena, and Durba Pal, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0*

Researchers led by Emily Jackson have analysed data from more than 150,000 patients with advanced cancer and identified T cell receptors that are shared across multiple patients, according to a release published on EurekAlert on 4 November 2026. The work appeared in Science Translational Medicine the same day. The authors describe a pipeline for finding such "public" receptors. [1]

T cells carry receptors in their membranes that recognise tumour antigens, which makes the receptors a route to targeting tumour cells specifically. Scientists consider them a basis for new anticancer therapies. The difficulty, the authors note, is that T cell receptors are very diverse, and current discovery methods need labour-intensive workflows and tissue specimens that are hard to obtain. [1]

## A database built from clinical genomics

The team assembled a database of bulk RNA sequencing data, clinical records and T cell receptor chains from more than 150,000 patients with more than 30 types of advanced cancer. They then developed an analytical pipeline to search through 26 million unique T cell receptor chains. [1]

## Receptors tied to common antigens

The method found receptors associated with common cancer antigens, including mutated KRAS protein and human papillomavirus proteins. The authors also characterised 11 families of T cell receptors shared across multiple patient populations. Nine of these families were previously unknown. [1]

The study is computational and based on existing clinical data. The release does not report testing of these receptors as therapies. [1]

Jackson and colleagues conclude that patient-derived immune repertoires captured during routine clinical testing are a valuable and largely untapped resource for cancer immunotherapy discovery. The article is titled "Cancer-specific T cell receptor discovery using 150,000 clinical genomics samples" (DOI 10.1126/scitranslmed.aeh8192). [1]

## Sources

1. [EurekAlert](https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1150022)

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Source: RealTech, realtech.media — https://realtech.media/news/rt-488b918e058240697d4320d6_researchers_find_11/