(Key points: Cancer immunology is not only very important for our body’s own defense system to fight and eliminate cancer, but also play an essential role in developing cancer vaccine. A groundbreaking progress will become possible only when scientists change their mindset and the way how they think, and start to turn around untouched stones.)
In a large conference room in the sprawling Orange County Convention Center the audience packed fully into the space to listen the seminar given by one of the most respected immunologists, Dr. Steven Rosenberg. He showed one slide after another, most of them were jaw-dropping pictures of excellent results: after a certain period of treatment lung cancer lesions in patients disappeared, completely disappeared.
That’s an unmistakable message: if scientists and doctors can find effective way to use our body’s own defense system to against cancer, the result will be astonishing. Years ago when I had several projects to use animal models to mimic cancer metastasis, one result is always very reproducible and predictable. That was don’t matter how many cancer cells were injected into animal blood, only very few can survive the forceful attacks by immune system, even in Severe Combined Immunodeficiency mouse. Every cancer researcher knows it is almost impossible to use a healthy mouse do any metastasis study. You may think there are many great studies to give a clear and satisfying explanation why this happen and how to apply it to fight cancer.
No. No one knows for sure why this happens. Since Drs. Michael Heidelberger, Frank Burnet and Jacques Miller established the modern immunology, one of the most important questions on how a healthy body can defeat cancer still remains as a big mystery.
It is time to change this situation. It is time to ask why so many treatments have failed to use our body’s own defense system to fight cancer. Are all of us focusing on the wrong side of the question and ignoring the most important aspect of cancer immunology? When I had a clue and think one immunology-related molecule may be very important in cancer immunology. Among seven varieties of very similar but clear different proteins in a protein family the only protein having no any antibody available is the one I am looking for.
To get a groundbreaking progress in cancer immunology is not only critical for cancer therapy, but also for cancer prevention and cancer vaccine development. When I chatted with one senior scientist in the immunology field about how important dendritic cell for immunology and may be one day the scientists in Rockefeller University who had this great discovery become a Nobel Prize laureate. The scientist said that only when someone can show that those cells can actually be used in vaccine, like a vaccine against cancer.
To overcome the current struggle in cancer immunology study the researchers and scientists really need to think in a totally different way and start to look around for target proteins or genes few have touched. It is also critical for immunologist to have deep experience and knowledge about solid tumor, not limit the focus on T cell or B cell or dendritic cells only. Meanwhile cancer scientists really need to have deep knowledge in immunology. It is a big obstacle for any progress in cancer immunology as long as scientists in those two fields are working in total different settings. It should be firmly unacceptable if a preeminent scientist gives an overview on cancer progress with many words like “oncogene” and “mutation” but barely mention immunology.
After several decades of struggle a victory in cancer immunology is finally within our reach. The day when cancer immunology get a great boost is also the day when many other most challenging questions in cancer be solved. They are really the two sides of the same coin. When I ask in his excellent results what was the targeted tumor antigen, Dr. Rosenberg wished a good luck for anyone who dares to try finding out.
(This article is the third in a series of “the Brand New Mindset for Cancer” essays. It was published on 8/31/2011.)
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