Antibody-based treatment improves immune response to cancer

A new antibody-based treatment has been found to improve the immune response to cancer.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, US, have announced that a way of arming the body’s natural defences to fight tumour cells has proved effective against three different types of cancer. The trial drug has proved far more efficient than earlier efforts to rouse the immune system to combat tumours, and could lead to more effective treatments in the future.

Suzanne Topalian, an oncologist at the University in Baltimore, and her colleagues developed the antibody treatment, which either eliminated or shrank tumours in 49 out of of 236 patients with certain types of advanced skin, kidney and lung cancer. Previous cancer immunotherapies have been far less successful, which offers hope for future treatments.

Antoni Ribas, who is also testing similar treatments at the Jonsson Comp­rehensive Cancer Centre of the University of California, US, said: "I think it really changes the field, because the response rates are much higher."

The therapy works by reactivating T cells, which identify ‘foreign’ cells and either bind to and destroy them or recruit other immune cells to make the attack. It blocks tumour cells from binding to PD-1, thereby reactivating T cells and allowing them to orchestrate an attack on the cancer.

Long lasting effects were seen on a number of patients involved in the trial. 20 people were found to respond to the therapy for a year or longer, which is a long response for patients with advanced cancers. Although there has been talk of using such treatments against cancer for a century, research attempts have only borne fruit within the last few years.

Ira Mellman, vice-president of research oncology at Genentech in South San Francisco, US, said: "If we can get away from the significant adverse events that we’ve seen and help larger numbers of patients, then immunotherapy can be a game changer."

Posted by Claire Manning