Groundbreaking Cancer Treatment Approved for Human Trials
A new cancer treatment may be within our grasp, and it’s chemotherapy and radiation free. Researchers at Stanford University’s School of Medicine believe they’ve developed a new form of immunotherapy, which uses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer cells. The team has just announced it’s been given the green light to begin clinical trials on humans.
Miraculous Recoveries in Mice
The team injected the new treatment, a combination of two immunotherapy drugs, into the tumors of 90 mice. It cured 87 of them with just one injection. The other 3 were cured after a second injection. Even more incredibly, the treatment extended far beyond the injection sites, suggesting cancerous cells outside the main tumor might also be treatable with the single injection.
How It Works
The body’s defense cells wage war whenever a tumor tries to take hold, but if the tumor is somehow able to grow, it can suppress the immune system. This leads to an inability to fight the tumor, allowing it to grow and spread. Some cancers can even rewire signals sent to immune cells— essentially “tricking” them into believing the tumors are wounded (but otherwise healthy) cells in need of added nutrients and assistance.
With immunotherapy, the body is given the tools it needs to continue identifying and attacking cancer cells. Because it attacks only the cancer, it doesn’t cause many of the horrific side effects associated with other cancer therapies like radiation and chemo.
Upcoming Human Trials
The team at Stanford, led by oncology professor Dr. Ronald Levy, plan on beginning human trials by the end of the year. They will be testing their treatment on 35 volunteers with low-grade lymphoma. Dr. Levy directed research that led to the development of rituximab, another immunotherapy medication that is currently being used to treat leukemias, lymphomas, and some autoimmune diseases.
While the current research looks promising, Dr. Levy warns that it’s still in its early phases, and it could take years before the FDA actually approves the drug—if it does approve it. What works in mice doesn’t always work in humans, and there could be safety issues that surface only after human trials begin. Even if this particular treatment doesn’t pass clinical trials, researchers are confident it will open the doors to even more effective and safe cancer treatments in the future.
Other Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtKnXYxc4Cc&feature=youtu.be
https://interestingengineering.com/new-cancer-vaccine-treatment-will-start-human-trials-soon
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