Researchers at the National Cancer Institute may be inching closer to an improved type of T-cell therapy that could "supercharge" their response against solid tumors, according to a Nov. 1 news release.
The addition of cytokines, immune-cell-boosting proteins, to custom engineered T-cells designed to carry two cytokines each, was able to completely shrink tumors in 80% of mice, researchers found. This was compared to tumor shrinking in just 20% of other groups that had T-cells carrying one cytokine protein, or zero.
"Cytokines can help boost T-cell function, but treating patients with large amounts of cytokines has been shown to cause severe, potentially fatal, side effects," said Rosa Nguyen, MD, PhD, lead author of the research at the Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute. "Our approach aims to deliver this cytokine boost in a targeted way, potentially reducing the side effects of treatment."
Dr. Nguyen said this development is noteworthy because T-cell therapies traditionally have not effectively shrunk solid tumors.