Boosting the Immune System Can Fight Cancer

Rebecca Lewis August 20, 2013

In a groundbreaking research, US researchers have discovered a way to fire up the body’s immune system and attack cancer cells. The process is called immunotherapy.

The immune system is delicately balanced so it attacks invaders and not the body’s own tissues. According to the researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, shifting the balance could open up new treatments for cancer.

Immunotherapy for cancer

The current study, which was published in the journal Nature Medicine, focused on treg cells – the part of the immune system which normally calm everything down to prevent the immune system from attacking the body. The team aimed to disrupt the function of treg cells so it would attack cancer. So in an animal test, they bred one group of mice which lacked the chemical needed for the tregs to function properly, and then created a drug which produced the same effect in normal mice.

"We needed to find a way to reduce Treg function in a way that permits antitumor activity without allowing autoimmune reactions." said Dr Wayne Hancock, one of the researchers. There are many diseases caused by the immune system turning on the body’s own tissues, such as type 1 diabetes or multiple sclerosis.

In both experiments, the shift in the immune system successfully restricted the growth of a type of lung cancer. “It really moves the field along towards a potentially major, new cancer immunotherapy," Dr Hancock added.

Still a long way

Whilst the study provides new hope for a safer way to destroy cancer cells, more research and tests are needed before it can be applied in treatments. Scientists still need to know whether the same process can be manipulated in human immune system before it could even be tested in clinical trials. But according to Dr Emma Smith of Cancer Research UK, the ‘turning power’ of the immune system against cancer is a promising field of research which is being studied by scientists all over the world.

"These findings go another step towards developing new treatments that act in this way, but the research is still at an early stage and we don’t know yet whether this approach will be safe or effective in people."

Source of this article:

Immune system boost ’fights cancer’