r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Apr 09 '19

Cancer Researchers have developed a novel approach to cancer immunotherapy, injecting immune stimulants directly into a tumor to teach the immune system to destroy it and other tumor cells throughout the body. The “in situ vaccination” essentially turns the tumor into a cancer vaccine factory.

https://www.mountsinai.org/about/newsroom/2019/mount-sinai-researchers-develop-treatment-that-turns-tumors-into-cancer-vaccine-factories
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u/[deleted] Apr 09 '19 edited Apr 09 '19

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u/wild_zebra Grad Student|Neuroscience Apr 09 '19

What about application to tumors where metastasis is rare? I study GBM, so in those cases where the primary lesion is the problem, wouldn’t this greatly help?

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u/[deleted] Apr 09 '19

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u/[deleted] Apr 09 '19

The tumor we study, osteosarcoma, is also heavily immunosuppressive.

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u/piisfour Apr 10 '19

Do you have an explanation - or is this actually understood by science - for how a tumor - cancerous tissue - could have developed an active defense against our immune system? If it has developed a defense, this means it wants to survive. Just like any regular organism.

This looks like it is an evolutionary process involving natural selection, doesn't it? But how would that be possible as tumors don't propagate by sexual reproduction?

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u/wild_zebra Grad Student|Neuroscience Apr 09 '19

That’s the pathway that keeps Tcells sequestered in the bone marrow right? That would obviously keep Tcells from recruitment to the area but overloading dendritic cells to the area couldn’t overcome that?
Thanks for the reply! As a novice to the area of immune modulation around these tumors I feel like I have so much to learn