On understanding the basics of cancer immunology and its potential

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Jeffrey Newman

Since I started writing this blog, I promised myself not to take the easy way out, especially when it came to reporting on new developments in science and medicine. The danger is the creation of false hopes and expectations. There is, however, some value in conveying important progress and in citing the names and contact information of the key individuals in the field. For one thing, there are early studies which might help some individuals and for another, the passage of information for other researchers world-wide some times has a beneficial and serendipitous effect on the development of new therapeutics. This is a topic upon which I have written many blogs.  Yesterday, I wrote about some successes at the University of Pennsylvania concerning the use of cancer immunotherapy and in teaching T-cells to identify and kill cancer cells. I did not, however, place the issues in adequate context, nor did I sufficiently mention other work in the field and some of the hurdles which researchers are facing. I have found an article which does this nicely, however, published in the New York Times and dated December 21, 2012 written by Daniel Engber entitled IS THE CURE FOR CANCER INSIDE YOU. It highlights the work of Ralph Steinman, a research immunologist who worked on these very concepts and who won the Nobel Prize posthumously after dying of his own pancreatic cancer. He tried some of the T-cell instruction therapies on himself and some believe that it slowed his cancer growth significantly. I confer this article to all interested. Jeff http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/magazine/is-the-cure-for-cancer-inside-you.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0