Scientists experimenting with an innovative treatment for cancer have now devised a targeted injection that has already successfully eliminated tumors in mice. Research devising more effective treatments for all types of cancer has been abundant over the past few years, offering new hope all the time. Some of the most recent experiments include using state of the art nanotechnology to hunt down microtumors, engineering microbes to thwart cancer cells and starving malignant tumors to death.
The latest study, from Stanford University School of Medicine in California, has investigated the potential of yet another approach: injecting minute amounts of two agents that stimulate the body's immune response directly into a malignant solid tumor.
Senior study author Dr. Ronald Levy said, so far, their studies using mice have proven successful. When we use these two agents together, we see the elimination of tumors all over the body. This approach bypasses the need to identify tumor-specific immune targets and doesn't require wholesale activation of the immune system or customization of a patient's immune cells.
Moreover, the researchers have reason to believe in a speedier trajectory toward clinical trials for this method, since one of the agents involved has already been approved for use in human therapy, while the other is already under clinical trial for lymphoma treatment. The study's findings were published yesterday in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Dr. Levy specializes in the use of immunotherapy, which is a type of treatment wherein the body's immune response is enhanced so that it can target cancer cells to fight lymphoma or cancer of the lymphatic system. There are several types of immunotherapy, including some that boost the entire immune system of the body and others that are a lot more targeted. But, the researchers note, they all come with caveats attached. They may have problematic side effects, be time-consuming or be simply too costly. The team's method arguably has more benefits even beyond its potential effectiveness as a treatment.
Dr. Levy said, our approach uses a one-time application of very small amounts of two agents to stimulate the immune cells only within the tumor itself. This method can teach immune cells how to fight against that specific type of cancer, which then allows them to migrate and destroy all other existing tumors.
Although the immune system's role is to detect and eliminate harmful foreign bodies, many types of cancer cell are able to evade detection in complex ways, which enables them to grow and spread.
As Dr. Levy said, this is a very targeted approach. Only the tumor that shares the protein targets displayed by the treated site is affected. We're attacking specific targets without having to identify exactly what proteins the T cells are recognizing.
Currently, the team is preparing a clinical trial to test the effectiveness of this treatment in people with low-grade lymphoma. Dr. Levy hopes that, if the clinical trial is successful, they will be able to extend this therapy to virtually any kind of cancer tumor in humans.
Dr. Levy said, i don't think there's a limit to the type of tumor we could potentially treat, as long as it has been infiltrated by the immune system.
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