What if the body could heal itself of even the most aggressive and deadly tumors?
In the span of just a few years, the idea has gone from New Age notion to medical reality. Researchers are investigating the potential of immunotherapy to be a powerful, effective and long-lasting solution to kill cancer
One of the confounding characteristics of cancer has long been that the body’s usually active patrol against viruses tends to leave deadly cancer cells alone to fester, mutate and spread.
The immune system has this blind spot by design – an immune system that has an ability to attack itself leads to autoimmune diseases, so as protection, it screens out its own tissue.
T-cells (stained in pink and brown), which are used by the immune system to fight
disease, show an increase near prostate cancer cells following an immunotherapy
For decades, scientists assumed that cancer was beyond the reach of the body’s natural defenses. But after decades of skepticism that the immune system could be trained to root out and eliminate these malignant cells, a new generation of drugs is proving otherwise.
The treatment consists of infusing antibodies that enhance the immune system to recognize cancer cells and attack it. What’s more, since the immune system has a built-in memory, it continues to go after cancer cells, so the response can be longer lasting and more complete.
The trick is that this treatment doesn’t work for everybody, and researchers don’t yet understand why. But when it does work, the results have been particularly impressive.
“Although there is a 30-year history of people and institutions trying to develop immunotherapy approaches to cancer, it has only been in the last 10 years that we’ve broken through and have been able to impact cancer using immunotherapy,” said Jeffrey Bluestone, PhD, executive vice chancellor and provost of UC San Francisco.
“I do think that we’re at an inflection point with immunotherapy,” he added. “It will be revolutionary and will impact how we approach cancer for years to come.”
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