Immunotherapy

A new study has shown how tumors that have gone "cold" due to a lack of key immune cells can be heated up through a carefully managed dose of radiation, drawing in fresh immune cells that can take up the fight from within.

Oxford scientists have demonstrated a cancer vaccine and immunotherapy combo in mice. The vaccine boosted levels of tumor-hunting immune cells, while the immunotherapy made them more effective killers. Human trials are due to start within months.

CAR T cell immunotherapy is a promising treatment for cancer, but it can trigger dangerous side effects. A new study precisely targets cancer by engineering CAR T cells to activate at higher temperatures, then heating tumors with ultrasound.

New preclinical work has found a combination of three experimental immunotherapy drugs could help shrink pancreatic tumors. Each of the drugs have demonstrated safety in early human trials and the hope is to begin testing the triple combo by the end 2021.

New research from the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging is demonstrating a new tool that can calculate a person’s immune system age, which could help predict frailty and disease before symptoms appear.

Australian researchers have identified the mechanism that enables some immune cells to outlast others. The findings point to a treatment method that could improve the success of cancer immunotherapy and help patients beat severe viral infections.

It’s hard to overstate the incredible influence our gut microbiome has on our health. Now, researchers have found that certain metabolites from intestinal bacteria could boost the cancer-killing effect of immunotherapy.

Researchers at Karolinska Institute in Sweden have made a breakthrough in the arms race that is cancer immunotherapy. The team has blocked a protein that silences an important tumor-suppressing protein, allowing the latter to get back to work.

Immunotherapy is a promising avenue for cancer treatment, but it has trouble against solid tumors without triggering major side effects. Now, researchers have developed a new form of the treatment that supercharges a different type of immune cell.

Results from a trial testing a type 1 diabetes vaccine have found the treatment effective in patients with a specific genetic variant. If validated in larger trials the treatment could be helpful in around 50 percent of patients with type 1 diabetes.

In recent years effective new methods of cancer treatment are emerging. Now, scientists at the University of Konstanz have found that combining two experimental methods – a vaccine and an immunotherapy – helps boost the success rate in mouse models.

One of cancer’s crafty tricks involves manipulating the host’s immune cells to protect tumors instead of fighting them. Now researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have turned the tables again, transforming these cells back into cancer killers.