(MENAFN - The Peninsula) Doha: Sidra Medicine and Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), Qatar Foundation, led a research study with the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) that represents a significant step toward personalised cancer immunotherapeutic approaches. The international team of cancer immunologists, computational scientists, oncologists, biologists, and geneticists found that pre-existing anti-cancer immunity depends heavily on a patient's genetic background. As such, certain genetic variants that make each of us unique can also influence the way the immune system fights tumors. Immunotherapy, a therapeutic approach based on boosting the immune system, has changed the way cancer is treated, yet only a minority of patients respond to the treatment.