All posts tagged: Immunotherapy

Previously irrelevant organ could be key to longer life and better cancer outcomes

Previously irrelevant organ could be key to longer life and better cancer outcomes

Published by Jenni Sidey

For something so small, the thymus has had an oddly quiet life in medicine. It sits behind the sternum and helps train T cells, the immune system’s frontline recognizers. In childhood, that job is essential. Later, as the thymus shrinks and gives way to fatty tissue, it has often been treated as yesterday’s organ, useful early on, then mostly spent. Two new studies suggest that view may have missed something important. Researchers at Mass General Brigham report that adults with healthier-looking thymuses on CT scans were more likely to live longer and less likely to die from heart disease or develop lung cancer. In a separate study, cancer patients with better thymic health also tended to do better on immunotherapy, one of modern oncology’s most important treatments. Both papers were published in Nature, and together they make a case that the adult thymus may still be doing more work than many doctors assumed. Overview of real-world cohorts and study design. (CREDIT: Nature) “The thymus has been overlooked for decades and may be a missing piece …

Nanoparticle discovery could unlock universal immunotherapy for cancer

Nanoparticle discovery could unlock universal immunotherapy for cancer

Published by Jenni Sidey

T cells are supposed to be relentless. These white blood cells patrol the body, identify threats, and destroy them. But inside solid tumors, something goes wrong. The tumor environment is hostile by design, flooding immune cells with suppressive signals and starving them of resources. Over time, T cells exposed to cancer lose their capacity to fight, entering a state researchers call exhaustion. They’re still there, still present, but functionally spent. Reversing that exhaustion has been one of the central challenges in cancer immunotherapy, particularly for tumors growing within organs. In these organs, existing therapies have largely failed. Now, engineers at the University of Pennsylvania have built a nanoparticle that attacks the problem from two directions at once. As a result, the research team describes the results in animal models as striking. The new particles, described in Nature Nanotechnology, eliminate established colon tumors in mice, protect against recurrence, and even cause distant, untreated tumors to shrink. While the work remains preclinical, the underlying approach may offer a path toward immunotherapy that works broadly across solid tumor …

‘Superior memory’ helps reprogrammed T cells hit tumors harder

‘Superior memory’ helps reprogrammed T cells hit tumors harder

Published by Jenni Sidey

A cancer drug class best known for attacking tumors may also help your immune system remember them better. The team says PARP inhibition helps these CD8 T cells develop what they call “superior memory.” In lab and mouse studies, the reprogrammed cells activated more effectively and hit tumors harder. They also survived longer, a quality that matters when cancer tries to return. “This opens the door to a new area of research in understanding how our immune system works, and as importantly, it opens the way for the development of new strategies for the treatment of cancer,” said Samir N. Khleif, MD, director of The Center for Advanced Immunotherapy Research and the director of Loop Immuno-Oncology Research Laboratory at Georgetown’s Lombardi. Samir N. Khleif, MD, director of The Center for Advanced Immunotherapy Research at Georgetown’s Lombardi. (CREDIT: University of Georgetown) A Familiar Cancer Target Gets a New Role PARP is an enzyme that detects DNA abnormalities and helps repair them. In many cancers, PARP activity can run in overdrive. That can support tumor growth. Drugs …

Scientists discover why some cancer treatments stop working

Scientists discover why some cancer treatments stop working

Published by Jenni Sidey

A quiet problem has followed cancer immunotherapy for years. The immune system can be taught to fight, then it fades. T cells surge, then stall, then slip into exhaustion. Researchers at Université de Montréal think they have found one reason why that stall happens, and it does not come from the tumor at all. In a Nature study led by Dr. André Veillette, the team points to a molecule on immune cells called SLAMF6, and they show a way to block it. Veillette directs the molecular oncology research unit at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM), which is affiliated with Université de Montréal. His group describes SLAMF6 as an internal brake on T cells, one that can activate on the T cell surface without needing to bind a tumor cell. Loss of SLAMF6 augments T cell activation and anti-tumor immunity. (CREDIT: Nature) A brake that does not wait for cancer Most people hear about immunotherapy through the idea of “releasing the brakes.” Drugs that block PD-1 or PD-L1 try to stop tumors from shutting immune …

Approved Immunotherapy Shrinks, Eliminates Rare, Aggressive Melanoma, Clinical Trial Finds

Approved Immunotherapy Shrinks, Eliminates Rare, Aggressive Melanoma, Clinical Trial Finds

Published by Sam Flores

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterFRIDAY, Jan. 30, 2026 (HealthDay News) — An already-approved immunotherapy drug can dramatically shrink — or even eliminate — tumors associated with a rare and aggressive form of melanoma, a new clinical trial has found. About 71% of desmoplastic melanoma patients treated with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) had no detectable cancer remaining when it came time to surgically remove their tumor, researchers reported Jan. 29 in the journal Nature Cancer. As a result, patients were spared from either disfiguring surgeries or more treatment, researchers said. “We’re seeing that desmoplastic melanoma, which can be challenging to remove surgically, responds extremely well to immunotherapy,” said senior researcher Dr. Antoni Ribas, director of the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Tumor Immunology Program. “We found that giving pembrolizumab before surgery is a powerful and safe approach that reduces the need for invasive procedures and improves long-term outcomes,” he said in a news release. But because the melanoma grows deep into tissues, sometimes along nerves, it can make surgery challenging and potentially disfiguring, researchers said in background …