Immunotherapy is an FDA-approved treatment for cancer that has significantly improved outcomes for patients. Immunotherapy is actually an umbrella term for different kinds of treatment, according to oncologist Melissa Wilson, MD, PhD, of the NYU Langone Medical Center. Four commonly used types of immunotherapy include antibodies, vaccines, cytokines, and checkpoint inhibitors. Antibodies are an active...
Category: <span>Immunology</span>
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Immunotherapy for lung cancer: What you need to know
Immunotherapy, also known as biologic therapy, may benefit people fighting certain kinds of lung cancer. This treatment option uses medicines to stimulate the body’s immune system so that it can fight the cancer cells more effectively. Immunotherapy has changed the way doctors treat many types of cancer, including lung cancer. In this article, we look at how immunotherapy...
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Strategy might prevent infections in patients with spinal cord injuries
New research led by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center found a potential therapeutic strategy to prevent infections in patients with spinal cord injuries. This research using mice with spinal cord injuries breaks new ground in the development of treatments to prevent and reduce the incidence of infections without the use of antibiotics, and...
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Researchers compose guidelines for handling CAR T cell side effects
Immune-cell based therapies opening a new frontier for cancer treatment carry unique, potentially lethal side effects that provide a new challenge for oncologists, one addressed by a team led by clinicians at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center with proposed guidelines for systematically dealing with the toxicities of these drugs. Their work, published...
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Inhibitors support immune therapy for leukemia
Bone marrow aspirate showing acute myeloid leukemia. Several blasts have Auer rods. New immune therapies are considered a promising lead for treating recurring acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Antibodies are able to eliminate even those cancer cells that cannot be removed via regular therapies. Scientists from the German Cancer Consortium (DKTK) and the Munich University...
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Immunotherapy treatment option for selected breast cancer patients, genetic study suggests
Immunotherapy drugs could help some breast cancer patients based on the genetic changes in their tumours, researchers at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and their collaborators find. Published today (13 September) in Cancer Research, scientists identify particular genetic changes in a DNA repair mechanism in breast cancer. The results open up the possibility to another therapy...
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Cholesterol-like molecules switch off the engine in cancer-targeting ‘Natural Killer’ cells
Scientists have just discovered how the engine that powers cancer-killing cells functions. Crucially, their research also highlights how that engine is fuelled and that cholesterol-like molecules, called oxysterols, act as a “cut-off” switch making it hard for our ‘Natural Killer’ cells to win the war against cancer. The scientists, led by Ussher Assistant Professor in...
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Immunotherapy treatment option for selected breast cancer patients, genetic study suggests
Existing immunotherapy drugs could help some breast cancer patients, based on the genetic changes in their tumors Immunotherapy drugs could help some breast cancer patients based on the genetic changes in their tumours, researchers at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and their collaborators find. Published today (13 September) in Cancer Research, scientists identify particular genetic changes...
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Immune system linked to alcohol drinking behaviour
Researchers from the University of Adelaide have found a new link between the brain’s immune system and the desire to drink alcohol in the evening. In laboratory studies using mice, researchers have been able to switch off the impulse to drink alcohol by giving mice a drug that blocks a specific response from the immune system in the...
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Body’s own defense against ALS actually drives disease progression at later stages
Differences in disease progression in spinal interneurons, a type of nerve cell that generally succumbs to ALS in later stages of disease. Left: Normal ALS models, showing protein aggregation (red/green) in spinal interneurons.Right Columbia scientists have discovered that one of the body’s natural defenses against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)—a cellular ‘clean-up process’ called autophagy—suppresses...