Immunotherapy - One of the most core therapies that doctors use to treat cancer - Involves activating the patients immune system to target the cancer sells - Has gotten a lot of attention - New treatments being approved every day
War on Cancer
- Nixon declared a "war on cancer during presidency - Brought new funding resources to accelerate research - The fight has been a long and exhausting one - But sprinkled with victories - then in
Steven Rosenburg - Rosenberg removed a patients T-cells - Incubated them with an IL-2 to ramp them up to seek out and kill the other cancer cells - People were excited that they were possibly on the verge of a cure... that was in 1985
Clinical Success - What happens to work on some things, like animals or the lab doesn't always translate to success - We continue to march on for further progress
Determination - Scientific curiosity about T-cells, one of the key components of of our immune systems - These hunt and kill germs or in this case cancer cells - Dr. Jim Allison is pioneering the way to develop an antibody to CTLA-4 to prevent breaks from working and unleashing the cancer killing power that the patients Tcells possess. Â Â
Ipilimumab - Ipilimumab or CTLA-4 is a first class drug that was approved in 2011 for melanoma treatments - Checkpoint inhibitors have become popular with pharma companies
Reports - In a report from last year it was estimated that 170 distinct checkpoint inhibitors are being evaluated in different combinations against cancer - Many drugs have shown efficiency
Pioneering work of Scientists
- Scientists are studying the fundamental mechanisms of our immune systems - Early hypotheses attempt to use our own immune system to battle cancer - Dr. Allison was able to bring about paradigm shifting breakthrough
Still A Great Deal to Explore - There is still a lot more that has to be explored - Immunotherapy technology targets to identify and new mechanisms to uncover why some respond and others do not - It will continue to evolve and improve