In 10 seconds? Researchers have found a way to target and kill hard-to-reach cancerous tumor cells through enhanced technology that harnesses a patient's own immune cells. The discovery expands the curative potential of immunotherapies to cover a much wider range of cancers than was previously possible.
What exactly did they discover? Cell-based cancer treatments such as CAR-T therapies have been hailed as the holy grail of a tireless pursuit for a cure. These drugs revolutionize the fight against cancer by genetically engineering immune cells to recognize proteins on the surface of cancer cells so that they can kill them. However, while these immunotherapies have shown great clinical success in curing blood cancers, they have had limited effectiveness in targeting solid tumors. This is in part because there have been fewer known tumor-specific proteins to target. Now, researchers developed a process to identify novel tumor-specific proteins, paving the path for bringing these life-saving therapies to a wider variety of cancer patients than ever before.
