A single dose of this treatment potentially eradicates cancer.
Freshened Up Research:
Scientists are making strides in the battle against cancer, with a groundbreaking injection developed at Stanford University that's been demonstrated to wipe out tumors in mice.
The scientific community has been tirelessly working on discovering more effective treatments for various types of cancer, bringing renewed hope continuously.
Innovative approaches to combating cancer include the use of advanced nanotechnology to seek out microtumors, engineered microbes to counteract cancer cells, and starving malignant tumors to shrivel and vanish.
The latest find by researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine in California involves a different approach: a targeted injection of two agents that directly stimulate the immune system at the site of a solid tumor.
Stanford's study has yielded impressive results in mice, suggesting the potential to eliminate tumors across the body. "When we use these two agents together," Dr. Ronald Levy, senior researcher, explains, "we witness the elimination of tumors far and wide."
This method skips the need to identify tumor-specific immune targets and avoids the necessity of wholesale immune system activation or personalized adjustments to a patient's immune cells.
Moreover, the researchers believe this method may see clinical trials sooner, given that one of the agents has already been approved for human therapy, and another is already undergoing clinical trials for lymphoma treatment.
The study was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
One-and-done treatment
Dr. Levy focuses on using immunotherapy, which strengthens the immune system to target cancer cells, to fight lymphoma, or cancer of the lymphatic system. There are different types of immunotherapy, including ones that boost the entire immune system and more targeted methods like the new Stanford study.
However, conventional immunotherapies come with drawbacks, such as troublesome side effects, lengthy execution, or excessive costs. This Stanford team's method, on the other hand, showcases several advantages—beyond its potential effectiveness as a treatment, that is.
"Our approach involves a one-time application of minuscule amounts of two agents to stimulate immune cells strictly within the tumor itself," Dr. Levy explains. "This method trains immune cells to fight a specific type of cancer, allowing them to migrate and destroy all other existing tumors."
Although the immune system's role is to sniff out and eradicate harmful foreign bodies, many types of cancer cells have learned ways to deceive the immune response, allowing them to grow and spread.
T cells—a type of white blood cell—play a crucial role in regulating the immune response. Normally, T cells would target and destroy cancer cells, but cancer cells often manage to trick them and elude the immune response.
Effective against multiple types of cancer
In the new study, Dr. Levy and his team delivered micrograms of two specific agents into one tumor site in each of the affected mice. The agents employed were:
- CpG oligonucleotide, a short string of synthetic DNA that enhances the immune cells' capacity to express a receptor called OX40, which is present on T cells' surfaces
- an antibody that binds to the receptor, activating the T cells
Once the T cells are activated, some of them travel to other areas of the body, hunting down and destroying any other tumors.
Key to note here, as Dr. Levy and his colleagues mention, this method can be applied to a range of different types of cancer; in each case, the T cells will "learn" to tackle the specific type of cancer cell that they've been exposed to.
In the lab, the scientists first employed this method on a mouse model of lymphoma, with 87 out of 90 mice becoming cancer-free. In the three remaining instances, the tumors did return, but they disappeared when the researchers administered the treatment a second time.
Similar results were noted in mouse models of breast, colon, and skin cancer, plus instances involving genetically engineered mice that developed breast cancer spontaneously, responding well to the new treatment.
A targeted approach
However, when scientists transplanted two distinct types of cancer tumors—lymphoma and colon cancer—into the same animal, only injecting the experimental formula into a lymphoma site, the results were inconsistent.
All the lymphoma tumors shrank in size, but the same didn't hold true for the colon cancer tumor, confirming that the T cells only learn to combat cancer cells in their immediate proximity before injection.
"This is a highly targeted approach," Dr. Levy remarks, "only the tumor that bears the protein targets displayed by the treated site is affected. We're taking aim at specific targets without having to determine exactly which proteins the T cells are recognizing."
Currently, the team is preparing a clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of this treatment in people with low-grade lymphoma. Dr. Levy hopes that, if the trial proves successful, they can extend this approach to target any kind of cancerous tumor in humans.
"I don't think there's a limitation to the type of tumor we could potentially address, as long as it has been infiltrated by the immune system," Dr. Levy concludes.
- This new treatment, developed by Stanford University, potentially offers a significant leap in the fight against various medical-conditions like cancer, as it aims to stimulate the immune system to eliminate tumors across the body.
- The innovative method, which involves a one-time application of minimal amounts of two agents to activate immune cells within a tumor, promises a targeted approach that may help to combat multiple types of cancer, including lymphomas, breast, colon, and skin cancers.
- The scientific advancement, currently undergoing clinical trials for lymphoma treatment, could revolutionize health-and-wellness and therapies-and-treatments for cancer patients, offering a potential one-and-done solution to eliminate tumors, thereby improving their chances of better health outcomes.
- While the immune system's primary function is to eliminate harmful foreign bodies, many types of cancer cells have evolved ways to deceive the immune response, allowing them to grow and spread. This new treatment targets T cells, a type of white blood cell, to stimulate their immune response against cancer cells, making them more effective in fighting the disease.
