ABOVE: © science source, KEITH CHAMBERS
Tumors are relatively easy to treat if they stay put, but cancer cells become more deadly when they disseminate to distant parts of the body. Surgery and local irradiation are not well suited for treating cancers that have spread and formed metastases at multiple body locations, and most types of metastatic cancer become progressively resistant to treatment with chemotherapeutic drugs or small molecule inhibitors that aim to block tumor growth.
The development of immunotherapy, a treatment that does not act directly on the tumor but rather stimulates the immune system to more effectively defend the whole body, has improved prognoses for some types of metastatic cancer. About 50 years ago, researchers found that one component of the immune system, CD8+ T cells, have the remarkable potential to detect and kill cancer cells. Groundbreaking research on melanoma, an aggressive type of skin cancer, and later ...
