A brand new type of cancer immunotherapy is now a step closer to reality thanks to vital evidence produced by our researchers in Madrid. But, unlike other immunotherapies which target active cancer, this new treatment, a type of ‘cancer vaccine’, could help our bodies stay vigilant against cancer cells returning, long after treatment has finished.
I am truly hopeful that treatment for cancer patients will greatly improve in the following decades. One key factor in the recent improvement of cancer treatments is the use of immunotherapies which help our immune system to identify and attack cancer.
Improving immunotherapies
Cancer immunotherapies work by boosting the power of our own immune system, training our bodies to spot and clear active cancer cells. But currently, once the cancer has gone, the immunotherapy is powerless against the threat of the cancer returning.
Professor David Sancho and his team in Madrid have been investigating a totally new idea that could help resolve this. They have been testing whether a new type of immunotherapy called a ‘dendritic cell cancer vaccine’ can train special memory cells in our immune system to remember cancer.
Dendritic cells are a key part of our immune system. Professor Sancho and his team believe that technologies based on these cells could actually help the body to stay vigilant, and guard against cancer long after treatment has finished. Imagine giving our body CCTV and security guards, to help spot cancer intruders in the future.
Dendritic cell vaccines are already being tested in patients for other types of cancer treatment. But their ability to affect our immune systems ‘long-term memory’ has never been fully tested before.
What have the researchers found so far?
Right now, the team’s work is still only in the very early stages, and they have just published their findings from tests in mice with cancer. But so far, the results look very promising.
The researchers used mice with different types of tumours - including melanoma and bowel tumours - to test the way the vaccine worked. They primed dendritic cells with fragments of tumour, and then studied whether this would help the mouse’s immune system to develop a long-term memory for cancer.
Sure enough, the mice treated with the vaccine had a stronger immune response against cancer cells, compared to mice that received no vaccine. The treatment helped the mice to develop immune cells that could recognize cancer cells, and were prepared to fight if they returned.
New hope for cancer patients
The mice who had been treated with the vaccine had fewer cancer relapses than those who had not been treated. The vaccine also seemed to work well when used alongside surgery.
These results are just the start, and many more tests will be needed before any treatment based on this technology reaches patients.
But the team’s work does suggest that this type of dendritic cell cancer vaccine could potentially be used early, along with surgery, to help improve immune memory in patients, and stop cancer from coming back after treatment.
Options are currently quite limited for many patients who have finished treatment but who could be at risk of their cancer returning, and this can often be a worrying time.
Any treatment that can help to provide reassurance, and provide long-term control of cancer, could be a real game changer for many patients.
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