Immune Cells Present Inside the Tumor can be Identified Using This Approach

By detecting Immune cells inside the tumors, the scientists can help the doctors devise an effective immunotherapy treatment for cancer patients.

A pioneering technique designed to spot differences between immune cells in tumours could speed the development of cancer treatments, research suggests.

New Hope to Brain Tumor Patients
A MET kinase inhibitor molecule named PLB-1001 identified is able to penetrate the blood-brain barrier, key treatment characteristic, said researchers.

‘The new approach - based on gene analysis - makes it easier to spot the range of immune cells present in a tumour. These cells could help the body detect and kill cancer when activated by certain drugs, scientists say.’

Tweet it Now

Scientists say the approach could be used to help doctors choose the best treatments for individual patients and predict which tumours are likely to respond to a particular therapy.

It could help target the use of immunotherapy - a new form of treatment that uses the body's own defences to tackle cancer. This therapy has shown great promise in recent years, but identifying which patients will respond best is a challenge for doctors.

The new approach - based on gene analysis - makes it easier to spot the range of immune cells present in a tumour. These cells could help the body detect and kill cancer when activated by certain drugs, scientists say.

Immunotherapy Drugs to be Delivered to Tumor�s Doorstep: Study
New nanodevice may deliver immunotherapy drugs directly to the tumor, thereby preventing the unwanted side effects that come with standard treatment.

Traditional treatments such as radiology do not discriminate between cell types and attack both cancerous and healthy cells, often leading to side-effects.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh analysed genes from anonymised medical databases of thousands of tumours to identify genes associated with immune cells.

Regulator of Brain Tumor Migration Discovered
In glioblastoma (brain) tumor patients deactivating the protein TEAD1 may stop tumor cells from migrating away from the main tumor mass.

This allowed them to quickly detect immune cells in a tumour based on their genetic code even when they were mixed in with harmful cancerous cells and normal cells.

They say that this resource - called ImSig - paints the best picture of tumours to date and will allow scientists to study how certain immune cell types affect cancer growth.

New Bacterial Therapy Shows Early Promise in Patients With Advanced Solid Tumors
In advanced solid tumors condition even after a single injection of the bacterial therapy, researchers were able to see biological and, in some patients, clinically meaningful activity.

In future, this could help doctors decide which patients were most likely to respond to immunotherapy, experts say.

Source-Eurekalert