ISTOCK; SELVANEGRAAfter a seemingly successful cancer treatment, a few hearty cancer cells can remain in patients’ bodies, a dangerous persistence known as minimal residual disease (MRD). A new study, published today (October 16) in Cancer Immunology Research, finds that these cells can later respond to signals from the body’s immune system and form new tumors—and that during this recurrence, they use signals of their own to blind immune cells to their presence.
The researchers find that treating mice with immunotherapies takes the blindfolds off the immune system and enables it to fend off the tumors.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that the immune system is at the core of the puzzle of how we can treat cancer more effectively,” says study coauthor Kevin Harrington of the Institute for Cancer Research in London in a statement. “This fascinating new study helps explain why sometimes a patient’s immune system can be effective against cancer cells while at other times it is not. It also shows there is a lot more to learn about the nature of those cancer cells that lie dormant as a way of resisting the killing effects of cancer treatments.”
Using genetically engineered mice injected with ...
