In 1999, two researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) received a long-awaited green light to launch separate studies on cancer care. Six months apart, Dr. Douglas Schwartzentruber and Dr. Larry Kwak (what an unfortunate name for a doctor! Change it now, to Dr Cure-all) began enrolling patients/subjects to test an entirely novel weapon in the war on cancer, one which they hoped would bypass the toxic effects of chemotherapy and give patients a new edge in halting the spread of tumours.
Both had the blessings of Dr. Richard Klausner, then NCI director. But even Klausner, a well-respected researcher, had to be persuaded at first. "I came to the NCI being quite skeptical about it," he says of the new strategy.
Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one. What Schwartzentruber and Kwak were hoping to do was prove they could vaccinate a patient against cancer — educate a body to, in essence, recognise and round up tumour cells the same way it polices viruses and bacteria.
Both had the blessings of Dr. Richard Klausner, then NCI director. But even Klausner, a well-respected researcher, had to be persuaded at first. "I came to the NCI being quite skeptical about it," he says of the new strategy.
Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one. What Schwartzentruber and Kwak were hoping to do was prove they could vaccinate a patient against cancer — educate a body to, in essence, recognise and round up tumour cells the same way it polices viruses and bacteria.
It certainly made good biological sense: the immune system is the body's built-in defense mechanism, after all, so why not turn it against one of the most persistent diseases?
One of the problems, is that a tumour is not exactly a pathogen. What it is, at its core, is a collection of aggressively growing cells that can't stop dividing. It is not entirely foreign, in the same way that a virus is; it does not infect healthy cells, as bacteria and viruses do.
One of the problems, is that a tumour is not exactly a pathogen. What it is, at its core, is a collection of aggressively growing cells that can't stop dividing. It is not entirely foreign, in the same way that a virus is; it does not infect healthy cells, as bacteria and viruses do.
Turning the immune system against cancer cells would involve turning the body's defense mechanisms against a part of itself. Designing a vaccine to do this entails creating the biological version of a stealth weapon encased in a smart bomb equipped with a guided missile.
All this was proving to be a bit too challenging. Hundreds of researchers in hundreds of trials had attempted to solve this and nothing had worked. While the vaccine idea made logical sense, the immune system, it seemed, just wasn't designed to battle cancer this way.
Eventually, in June this year, after nearly a decade of carefully inoculating patients suffering from either advanced melanoma or a type of lymphoma, both Schwartzentruber and Kwak announced positive outcomes of their trials, at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Orlando, Fla.
All this was proving to be a bit too challenging. Hundreds of researchers in hundreds of trials had attempted to solve this and nothing had worked. While the vaccine idea made logical sense, the immune system, it seemed, just wasn't designed to battle cancer this way.
Eventually, in June this year, after nearly a decade of carefully inoculating patients suffering from either advanced melanoma or a type of lymphoma, both Schwartzentruber and Kwak announced positive outcomes of their trials, at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Orlando, Fla.
Their results, along with those of a trial vaccine against prostate cancer and an early candidate against a type of brain cancer, suggest that we might finally be on the way to unleashing the immune system against the disease.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment