Immunotherapy where the patient’s immune system strengthened or altered, appears to be one of the most effective treatments for cancer.
in immunotherapy, the immune cells of the patient are used to kill the cancer, but the problem here is that the so-called T-cells in many cases, can not recognize the cancer cells.
the online -magazine Scientias gives a nice comparison, if you see at night two men wearing balaclavas in the garden of the neighbors, you probably call the police. But as you see the day a woman in a neat suit at the door at the doors, go no alarm bells ringing, while later that she was a crook. So it is with cancer, if cancer cells in the body are clearly different, they will be attacked, but if they are well managed to disguise, they are left alone. Tumors simply not consist of identical cells, are heavily mutated genetic knoeiboelen, and cells from different parts of a tumor can look very different and behave differently.
It is important that the T also cells get that disguised cancer in sight. There have already been attempts to focus the immune system to kill tumors, but such cancer vaccines have so far been unsuccessful;
“unique code”
The researchers from University College say they have developed a method that enables a number of unique features, a unique code, may find all the cancer cells in a tumor are common to, and which can therefore be used to target the immune system in all cancer cells.
cancer cells in a tumor to grow a little bit, such as a tree, with a number of “stem mutations” in the core, after which other mutations fanning out in all directions. Known as cancer heterogeneity.
The international research team now has a found a way which “stem mutations” to find, that change the antigens, the proteins that protrude from the surface of cancer cells, and which may or may not activate the immune system. When the immune cells focus on those stem mutations, they will attack any cancer cells, since all the cancer cells share the same mutations with each other.
Two approaches are proposed to aim at the trunk movements. The first is to develop cancer vaccines for each patient, which focus on the immune system to recognize the cancer cells.
The second is to “fish” for the best defenders, immune cells that the mutations already attacks, and which to grow in the laboratory. Therefore you get a large number of these cells that can then be reintroduced into the body brought there to do battle with the cancer.
The researchers believe that their discovery can form the backbone of new treatments and they hope a treatment to be tested on patients within two years.
“Still very early”
“This is a very important step, and it gets us thinking about heterogeneity as a problem, and why the cancer has such a big advantage,” said Dr. Mareco Gerlinger of the British Institute of Cancer Research at the BBC. “Stem Mutations choose as a target, it is certainly sensible from many different viewpoints, but it is still very early in the investigation, and whether it really is so simple, I’m not sure.”
“Many cancers do not stand still, but they continue to evolve constantly. they are moving targets that make it difficult to get them under control. cancers that can change and evolve, might lose the original antigen, or maybe come up with smokescreens for the day or another good antigens, so the immune system become confused. “
More than a year
the health correspondent of the BBC, James Gallagher, warns against excessive optimism.
Immunotherapy is currently the most exciting field in cancer treatment and probably in all of medicine, but that does not mean that a general cancer treatment lies ahead.
the research furthers our understanding of how our immune system and cancer interact, but new knowledge is not used to even treat a single patient, said Gallagher. No studies have even carried out on animals, and so there is a serious risk that will not work a cure.
Even if it does work, it is a very expensive treatment that is customized for each patient must be made. The whole process would take more than a year.
“Brakes loose and send”
some immunotherapies have yielded spectacular results, which the cancers completely disappeared in some patients. During such treatments take the researchers, the braking away of the immune system, so that it is freed to attack cancer cells.
The researchers hope that the combination of the removal of the brakes of the immune system, and taking over of the “control” of the system, to spectacular results will result.
“This is exciting. Now we can set priorities and take antigens from tumors in the visor, which are present in every cell, the Achilles heel this highly complex cancers, “said professor Charles Swanson of the UCL Cancer Institute BBC News. “This is very fascinating and it performs personalized medicine to its absolute limit, each patient a unique, custom made getting treatment.”
Professor Peter Johnson of Cancer Research UK said the study “impressive results” had shown, and that “the technology is now more complicated and quite new”, but that the costs will fall once it starts it.
“elegant study”
Dr Stefan Symeonides , an expert in experimental cancer treatments at the University of Edinburgh, said that it is impractical to develop a personalized vaccine, especially if a patient is in urgent need of treatment.
But he added that “elegant study” groundbreaking insight into the current immunotherapies, which does not yet work for all people.
“it’s not just the number of antigens, it is how much of the cancer cells they have”, so he said. “The data from the study will be far above years in discussions while we try to find out which patients benefit from immunotherapies, which are not, and why, and how we can improve these therapies.”
study on stem mutations appeared in “Science”.
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