Immune therapies have been explored as a way to treat cancer after it develops. But a new study from the Comprehensive Cancer Center suggests that genetic risk of prostate cancer can be reduced by rescuing critical immune system cells.
The study was done in mice and would need further validation and extensive testing in the lab before being available for humans. But the results are promising for people with a strong family history of cancer or known cancer genes.
Vaccines typically are based on specific antigens and trigger immunity for a specific pathogen. This is more challenging for cancer as the best lymphocytes that generate immunity to cancer are eliminated during development. In this new study, researchers sought to rescue these key lymphocytes — called high affinity cancer-reactive T cells — during their development.
The study appears online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“It appears that the rescued T cells delay tumor formation. It may not be that this approach can prevent cancer altogether, but it can delay the process and slow the aggressive growth and spread of cancer,” says study author Dr. Pan Zheng, associate professor of surgery and pathology at the Medical School.
While this study looked specifically at mice with prostate cancer, the approach has potential for other types of cancer.
“There is a certain population with a high likelihood of getting cancer, and we need better strategies to minimize their risk. This approach may be translated into clinical care for those patients,” Zheng says.
Additional U-M authors are Penghui Zhou, Beth McNally, Lizhong Wang and Yang Liu, all of the Medical School.
