Coaxing the immune system to fight cancer

Immuno therapy was once the black sheep of cancer research. Originally conceived over a century ago, it aims to stimulate a patient’s own immune system to fight cancer. That’s a very different approach than chemotherapy, which essentially poisons tumors.

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Early trials of immunotherapy in the 1900s and a second round of experiments in the 1980s caused toxic side effects. That led oncologists to dismiss this approach– until 2011, when a new immunotherapy treatment gave patients with metastatic melanoma years of tumor-free extra life. By 2013, Science magazine had named immunotherapy the “breakthrough of the year” and immunotherapy became the cancer community’s great hope for a cure.In 2017, California’s Gilead Sciences paid a stunning $11.9 billion to acquire Kite Pharma, which commercialized an Israeli-developed immunotherapy treatment called CAR-T. And yet, for all its promise, immunotherapy is still in its early days. Only a small number of patients suffering from a few specific cancer types are responding positively so far. Israeli scientist Rony Dahan thinks he knows why. And he’s set out to do something about it. -- More....

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