With cancer rates increasing, largely due to longer life expectancy and increased exposure to mutagenic factors, there is ever the need to find more effective, less invasive, and far less destructive treatments. Before a tumor has metastasized, doctors may be able to remove the tumor to prevent its spread, but it is an invasive procedure. Furthermore, it doesn’t necessarily stop the spread of the cancer (if it happens to metastasize). Another option, especially if the cancer has begun to spread through the body via the blood or lymph, may be chemo or radiation therapy. However, both of these treatments act to kill fast multiplying cells and aren’t selective against non-cancerous cells.
Low and behold, a new treatment is on the front. Patient specific T-cell therapy. A recent paper suggests modifying T-cells to attack cancer cells specifically. Tumor cells express a series of novel genes that aren’t expressed in normal cells. These tumor cells have a specific peptide sequence due to the accumulation of mutations in these cells. The researchers used these peptides to trigger the clonal response of polyclonal T-cells from patients with cancer. They used patients with medulloblastoma. The brain tumor is very dangerous, and current treatment have proven inadequate in treating high-risk patients. Furthermore, conventional treatments cannot be amplified in this region due to high risk of brain damage.
This method of therapy is being adopted for other types of cancer, too. Researchers are testing the effectiveness of “pulsing” T-cells. It is similar to the method described above. Exposing an array of T-cells to different antigens from different types of tumors reveals the possibility of personalizing T-cells treatment to treat cancer. It’s unfortunate that cancer is becoming more prevalent; however, if we are to continue to proceed with our current lifestyles, we must learn to protect it. And, certainly we’re not going to let some cancer get us down, right?
BillyBiome 