Therapeutic approaches to manipulating the immune system to treat cancer
A Proteomic Approach to the Tumor Microenvironment An outstanding issue in treating solid cancers is understanding the complexity of this pathological tissue. Solid tumors are comprised not only of the cancer cells, but they also contain immune cells, cells that form blood vessels and lymphatic vessels, fibroblasts, and the stem cells that form the fibroblasts … Read more
T cells of the adaptive immune system are not the only cytotoxic cells in the immune system. Natural killer cells (NK cells) are a cytotoxic white blood cell (lymphocyte) of the innate immune system. Clinical trials with NK cells use these as cell-based biologic therapies: The NK cells are the therapy. New research suggests that … Read more
Efforts are underway to identify the molecular reasons why some patients exhibit an enduring response to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. These patients have been called “exceptional” responders or “super” responders. Some patients that have cancers with a lot of DNA mutations (high mutational burden) are better responders to immune checkpoint therapy compared with patients that … Read more
A main goal of current research and clinical trials is to expand the number of patients that benefit from immune checkpoint inhibitors. Thus, it is perhaps not surprising that combination therapies are the future for these immunotherapies in treating cancer. There are many clinical trials that combine an immunotherapy with conventional chemotherapy (drugs that kill … Read more
Some cancer immunotherapy drugs turn off a signaling pathway; others turn on a signaling pathway (1). FDA-approved immunotherapy drugs that target the PD-L1/PD-1 or CTLA-4/B-7 immune checkpoints function as antagonists to block immune signaling pathways. Investigational immunotherapy drugs that target GITRL/GITR function as agonists to activate an immune signaling pathway. Investigational drugs that target OX40L/OX40 … Read more