American researchers have successfully tested a vaccine capable of eradicating cancer cells in mice with lymphoma, then suffering from breast, colon and skin cancers. A human clinical trial is now planned.
Researchers at Stanford University in the United States have successfully tested a vaccine capable of eradicating cancer cells in mice with lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system, the main part of the body’s immune system. He is the most common cancer of the blood and lymphatic system, especially in adolescents and young adults. Their study was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Immunotherapy, at the heart of success
Administered in the tumors of 90 mice, the treatment made it possible to remove all traces of lymphoma in 87 of them. Further injections then enabled the three rodents still ill to eradicate the lymphoma. “We used a nonspecific approach called in situ vaccination, explain the study authors. The immunostimulants are injected directly into the tumor, which triggers an immune response from local T cells that attack the cancer throughout the body.”
More precisely, this method falls under immunotherapy, a form of treatment which consists in administering substances which will stimulate the body’s immune defenses. T cells, which play an essential role in the functioning of the immune system, usually struggle to eradicate cancer cells. But this seemingly miracle treatment uses antibodies to “remove the brakes on the immune system, allowing pre-existing T cells to attack cancer cells.”
A planned human clinical trial
The researchers then carried out their experiment on mice with breast, colon and skin cancer. “I don’t think there is a limit to the type of tumor that we could potentially treat, as long as it has been infiltrated by the immune system,” said Dr. Ronald Lévy, author of the study. Scientists will test the treatment on 15 human patients with lymphoma to see if a cure is also possible in humans.
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