BERKELEY, CA (UroToday.com) - How do you teach the immune system to hate prostate cancer?
“Immune cells, which have the potential to be warriors that could attack and kill very quickly, see prostate cancer and actually recognize it…Unfortunately, this recognition does not lead to immune attach and eventual rejection of the tumor, as we would hope.”
-- Charles Drake, MD, PhD, Immunologist, Johns Hopkins Medicine, The James Buchanan Brady Urology Institute.
In clinical studies in individuals with kidney, lung and skin cancer, Dr. Drake reported results show blockading an immune checkpoint (controlled by molecule PD-1) may lead to the body’s immune system rejecting the tumor. However, this therapy does not work in all patients because another checkpoint protein (known as LAG-3) is involved. However, blocking both PD-1 and LAG-3 can lead to rejection of tumors. Dr. Drake and colleagues hope to demonstrate the same for prostate cancer.
From Johns Hopkins Medicine publications, Prostate Cancer DISCOVERY, Vol. 8, Winter 2012. Click here to read full-text article.
Related immunotherapy news:
Since sipuleucel-T (Provenge®) has been approved as the first therapeutic anti-cancer vaccine, there are many valid questions of sequencing and combination therapies.
“Very few metastatic cancers are currently treated with just one chemotherapy drug...it makes sense that combination immunotherapy might also hold clinical promise,” says Charles Drake , MD, PhD, in Johns Hopkins Medicine, Prostate Cancer DISCOVERY, “Preclinical data overwhelmingly suggest that combination approaches could lead to major advances in clinical benefit.”
Written by Karen Roberts, medical editor, UroToday.com
