New drug Helps Immune System Fight Back Cancer
LONDON (Dispatches)-Scientists have found a way to boost the immune system to help it fight back against cancer.
Scientists from King's College London have found a way to boost the immune system to help it fight back against cancer.
The breakthrough involves the first ever use of a combination of chemotherapy and a drug being trialled as a treatment for neonatal jaundice, that together help kick start the body's natural defences.
The advance involves the targeting of an enzyme called Heme Oxygenase-1 (HO-1), which is active in a variety of cancers. HO-1 can promote the growth of tumours by preventing the immune system from effectively attacking cancer cells.
Scientists have already shown in the laboratory that chemotherapy can trigger immune responses against cancer, but the King's team have found that these responses are suppressed by non-tumour cells called 'macrophages', which reside in the tumour and produce the HO-1 enzyme.
In a major breakthrough, researchers found that in preclinical trials, a drug being tested for the treatment of jaundice (SnMP), effectively prevented the suppression of the immune response stimulated by chemotherapy, allowing the immune system to efficiently attack the cancer.
Scientists from King's College London have found a way to boost the immune system to help it fight back against cancer.
The breakthrough involves the first ever use of a combination of chemotherapy and a drug being trialled as a treatment for neonatal jaundice, that together help kick start the body's natural defences.
The advance involves the targeting of an enzyme called Heme Oxygenase-1 (HO-1), which is active in a variety of cancers. HO-1 can promote the growth of tumours by preventing the immune system from effectively attacking cancer cells.
Scientists have already shown in the laboratory that chemotherapy can trigger immune responses against cancer, but the King's team have found that these responses are suppressed by non-tumour cells called 'macrophages', which reside in the tumour and produce the HO-1 enzyme.
In a major breakthrough, researchers found that in preclinical trials, a drug being tested for the treatment of jaundice (SnMP), effectively prevented the suppression of the immune response stimulated by chemotherapy, allowing the immune system to efficiently attack the cancer.