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Our immune cells can destroy tumors, but sometimes they need a kick in the pants to do the job. A study in mice describes a new way to incite these attacks by injecting an immune-stimulating mixture directly into tumors. The shots trigger the animals' immune system to eliminate not only the injected tumors, but also other tumors in their bodies.
"This is a very important study," says immunologist Keith Knutson of the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, who wasn't connected to the research. "It provides a good pretext for going into humans."
To bring the wrath of the immune system down on tumors, researchers have tried shooting them up with a variety of molecules and viruses. So far, however, almost every candidate they've tested hasn't worked in people.
Hoping to develop a more potent approach, medical oncologist Ron Levy of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, and colleagues used mice to test the cancer-fighting capabilities of some 20 molecules, including several types of antibodies that activate immune cells. The researchers first induced tumors by inserting cancer cells just below the skin at two different locations on the animals' abdomens. After tumors started growing at both sites, the scientists injected the molecules, alone or in combination, into one tumor in each mouse. They then tracked the responses of both tumors.
A pair of molecules—a type of DNA snippet called CpG and an antibody against the immune cell protein OX40—produced the best results. "On their own, they do almost nothing, but the combination is synergistic," Levy says. When the researchers injected the two molecules into mouse tumors, they disappeared in less than 10 days. In less than 20 days, the noninjected tumors had also vanished, the team reports online today in Science Translational Medicine.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/01/injection-helps-immune-system-obliterate-tumors-least-mice
Idit Sagiv-Barfi, et. al. Eradication of spontaneous malignancy by local immunotherapy. Science Translational Medicine. DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aan4488
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday February 05 2018, @08:08PM (3 children)
So, would there be a down side of doing this prophylactically (other than selecting for non susceptible tumors - which just about any treatment also does)?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @08:52PM (2 children)
I am copying this idea from another source, but an immunologist stated that in experiments like this, there is a risk of an autoimmune disorder developing. If you inject this into non-tumorous area, there is a chance that your immune system will target something else in the immediate area as bad and start attacking that. For example, if you inject it into your breast to prevent breast cancer it could destroy the milk-secreting cells, because there is a chance the immune system will begin targeting the type of cells in the vicinity of the injection. The greater the chance being in cases where those cells aren't found in other places of the body, which is why cancer or other "different" or specialized cells are easily targeted.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @09:19PM (1 child)
so in what scenario would the auto-immune disease be worse than cancer?
if I get testicular cancer, and the options are (1) cut them out and maybe die anyway or (2) live and maybe make my immune system kill them, I will choose (2). no contest.
maybe I would prefer to die than to have my immune system attack my brain cells
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 06 2018, @04:26AM
Two points:
1. The question was the downsides of trying this as a prophylactic, which means there is no cancer. That would mean that you are running the risk of getting an autoimmune problem when there isn't a cancer to treat.
2. Assuming you have cancer and it has gotten to the point where it has started to metastasize, you could still have quite some time left. However, considering that treatment got rid of the cancer in 20 days, having any cell of a specific type completely removed in that time could be fatal. Think no nerve cells in your brain in 20 days, or no cardiac muscle in 20 days, or no bone marrow in 20 days, or no adipose tissue in 20 days; you'd be toast.