Harnessing immu

And here I was thinking there was some exotic new natural therapy called immu.

Very interesting indeed. It does inspire some hope in me, but like Kandy says "Time is of the essence". I pray for an absolute explosion of progress very soon for MBC and every cancer.

great article! Thanks for sharing.I'm in an immunotherapy trial for one of the checkpoint inhibitors and passed this on to friends and family. It's a great explanation of the potential and why I was willing to go through so much to get in.

I've only finished the first cycle and don't know if in recieving the trial drug (atezolizumab ) or placebo, but I've had side effect reasons to believe it's the immu drug.

Another interesting, related story:

In cancer, it's back to the future as old treatments make cutting-edge ones more effective

SHARON BEGLEY

AUGUST 4, 2016

New cancer drugs that unleash the immune system on tumors are all the rage, getting credit for curing former President Jimmy Carter's advanced melanoma and inspiring tech billionaire Sean Parker to pledge $250 million to cancer research. Behind the excitement, however, is the hard truth that these therapies work in only a minority of patients.

Now scientists are finding hints of a solution in an unexpected place: Older, out-of-favor cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation may make the cutting-edge immune-based drugs effective against more cancers — even hard-to-treat ovarian and pancreatic tumors.

The growing body of research raises the possibility that it might not be necessary to invent new medications to make meaningful progress against cancer. "If we just take the drugs we have and combine them in the right way, I think there is huge potential" for beating more cancers into remission, said Dr. Patrick Hwu of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

If early successes pan out in animal experiments and dozens of clinical trials now underway, patients would have more options and a better chance at a true cure. Another plus: radiation and generic chemotherapy are relatively cheap compared with new immuno-oncology medicines.

Tumors disable the immune system's killer T cells, which can find and destroy certain cancer cells. Immunotherapy drugs work by preventing tumors from using this devious tactic. But if no T cells are swarming the tumor in the first place, the drugs don't help. It's like playing the San Antonio Spurs with NBA defensive player of the year Kawhi Leonard sitting on the bench, but then not getting your own players past midcourt.

The trick, therefore, is to turn "cold" tumors that T cells ignore into "hot" tumors that attract T cells. Or, at the risk of torturing the metaphor, to get those T cells past midcourt. "If the T cells don't exist, the question is, how do you make them exist?" said Hwu.

Continued at:

https://www.statnews.com/2016/08/04/combination-cancer-treatments/

One of the tricks they are using to get T-Cells to work is to use a genetically altered virus, like Polio, which does stimulate the immune system to attack the cancer cells. They have had amazing results with this strategy at Duke University with a rare form of brain cancer and there are plans to expand this strategy to other solid tumors.

The study at Duke was a Phase I trial, which means they are still working out the safest dose of the virus to give. Too much creates an over stimulation of the immune system with adverse effects they need to manage. So they cut the dose, and get incomplete results. However, it appears that the cancer is weakened and is then more susceptible to standard chemotherapy.

This gets back to the opinion of Dr. DaVita. His experience in treating cancer is that nearly every agent they use is more effective when used in combination with other treatments. The purpose of clinical trials is to investigate the best way to use these agents in combination to produce good outcomes.

Having done a vaccine trial at Fred Hutch in Seattle for Her2+++ patients, I feel they are on to something in kick starting the immune system (T cells) to recognize the cancer cells as "invaders". During the trial my immune system went into hyper drive. Being allergic to bee stings can be a problem for a bee keeper, LOL! I show allergic reactions to crab, insects, many pollens. These reactions were not present before the trial. I am hoping the cancer cells are included in those my body has decided to attack. I have been NED now for 5 years, ever since participating in the trial. At what point can I convince them that this was successful? (I continue on Tykerb and Herceptin treatments, as the oncologists will not say "cure".) My oncologist told me that I will continue on Herceptin infusions every three weeks, and Tykerb daily, until I die. And I laughed and told him that I would see him retire as I continue treatments in 20-30 years.

As a side discussion, my brother has lymphoma. Enduring 5 stem cell transplants, being near death many times, he is doing well. He was the very first patient at Fred Hutch and Seattle Cancer Care to undergo CAR-T cell transplant. (Removing the patients own T cells and training them to recognize the cancer cells. He said after the cells were re infused that it felt like his tumors were melting like sticks of butter in the summer sun.)

My brother and I were diagnosed within weeks of each other (he is one year younger than I). He with a rare, aggressive lymphoma. Me with a rare aggressive breast cancer (Inflammatory Breast Cancer). Both Stage IV, both given weeks to live in 2009. We are both in "remission?" after immune system trials.