Scientists Find New Way to Treat Cancer

Date: 24 October 2021 - 22:18

News ID: ۹۵۷۸۰

NEW YORK (Dispatches) -- In a new study researchers have found a promising strategy to treat cancer by stimulating the body’s own immune system to destroy tumor cells.
The novel method discovered by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists involves removing tumor cells from the body, treating them with chemotherapy drugs, and then placing them back in the tumor. When delivered along with drugs that activate T cells, these injured cancer cells appear to act as a distress signal that spurs the T cells into action.
The treatment completely eliminated tumors in nearly half of the mice in the study.
This approach is based on a phenomenon known as immunogenic cell death, in which dead or dying tumor cells send signals that attract the immune system’s attention.
The drugs that appear to work best with this approach are drugs that cause DNA damage. The researchers found that when DNA damage occurs in tumor cells, it activates cellular pathways that respond to stress. These pathways send out distress signals that provoke T cells to leap into action and destroy not only those injured cells but any tumor cells nearby.