Efforts to develop cellular cancer immunotherapies against solid tumors like breast and prostate cancer have run aground against tumor defenses.
Research into our natural anti-cancer immune defenses has shown that a self-renewing pool of anti-cancer cells sustains long-term immune attacks against tumors. Could this type of perpetual anti-cancer attack be recreated to improve immunotherapy?
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center immunotherapy researcher Shivani Srivastava, PhD, recently received a National Cancer Institute MERIT Award to study whether genetically engineered CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T cells have the ability to form such self-renewing reservoirs, and how to encourage their formation to improve CAR T-cell therapy for solid tumors.
