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Drugs reveals cancer tumors to the immune system and drastically increases survival rates in human trials
The drug nivolumab stops tumors from camouflaging themselves from the immune system appears to significantly boost survival rates in people with a form of lung cancer that is almost incurable unless removed surgically before it spreads. Some people who received the drug have seen their tumours disappear completely.
One way that cancer cells evade the immune system is by interacting with a molecule on the surface of white blood cells called PD-1. Nivolumab blocks PD-1 so tumour cells can't interact with it. This reawakens the immune system, allowing it to attack the cancer.
The two-year survival rate of the group [with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) – the most common form of the disease, accounting for 85 per cent of all cases. Participants received either 1, 3, or 10 milligrams of nivolumab per kilogram of bodyweight daily for up to 96 months] on nivolumab was more than double that in a group given standard therapies. “We found 1 in 4 patients alive at two years, compared with 1 in 10 for conventional chemotherapy,” says Michael Giordano, head of oncology development at Bristol-Myers Squibb, the company behind nivolumab.
Source: http://nextbigfuture.com/2014/06/drugs-reveals-cancer-tumors-to-immune.html
