Stanford Medicine Scientists Repurpose Cancer Cells to Combat the Disease

Stanford Medicine researchers have applied a novel strategy to fight cancer by genetically modifying cancer cells to train the body's immune system to target and destroy the original cancer.

"This method could pave the way for a completely new treatment paradigm," said Dr. Ravi Majeti, a professor of hematology and the senior author of the study, which was published on March 1 in Cancer Discovery. The lead author, Dr. Miles Linde, was a former PhD student in immunology at Stanford and is now at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Institute in Seattle.

Many of the most innovative cancer treatments leverage the body's immune system to combat the disease. These therapies often work by either lifting the natural restrictions on immune responses or by training immune cells to more effectively recognize and attack cancer cells. For example, CAR T-cell therapy involves extracting T cells from a patient, modifying them to recognize specific cancer antigens (proteins that trigger an immune response), and reinfusing them into the patient.

However, a challenge with this approach is that there are numerous cancer antigens, making it difficult for physicians to predict which will be most effective. The new method developed by Stanford researchers could potentially simplify this process by using the cancer cells themselves as a tool to instruct the immune system, offering a more targeted and efficient way to fight the disease.

SOURCE: https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2023/03/cancer-hematology.html 

CREDITS: STANFORD MEDICINE