Immunologic Therapies Show Promise In Combating Cancer But Research Support Is Lacking, A Expert Says In Annals Of The New York Academy Of Sciences

Main Category: Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 04 Sep 2009 - 15:00 PDT

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Despite fast-growing evidence that immunologic therapies can be effective cancer treatments, research support for this field hardly matches its potential, a leading expert says in the latest Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

The science of cancer immunology is admittedly "intricate" because of the many cellular targets, "check points" and treatment-evasion mechanisms tumors present to immunologic treatment, Ralph Steinman, MD, of The Rockefeller University in New York City, says in his preface to Cancer Vaccines: 6th International Symposium, published in September.

But given the accumulating knowledge in the field, many researchers wonder why oncologists don't yet have vaccines that actively mobilize T cell activity, the cornerstone of the immune system's ability to fight disease, to prevent and treat many cancers, he writes.

Antibody-based treatments clearly are making progress in cancer, Steinman notes, citing such antibody-based therapies as Herceptin® and Rituxan® and antibody-oriented vaccines against cancer-causing hepatitis B and human papilloma viruses. But to date, there have been no successful T cell-based vaccines.

"I think a major obstacle … is the inability to vigorously pursue research in patients, to test combination approaches, to set standards for what we need to know, and to determine in different types of cancer the best immune-based approaches," Steinman writes. "These obstacles are incomprehensible since a properly mobilized immune system is uniquely able to simultaneously attack multiple cancer cell targets while other targeted drugs only attack one pathway at a time, which appears to be a relatively easy way for tumors to escape. Yet immunologic approaches to cancer are being neglected, even though they should logically be pursued."

At least 22,000 patients a year enter trials for cytotoxic and other drugs supported by the US National Cancer Institute, Steinman notes, but only a small percentage of the NCI's budget goes toward immunology "and of this, little for patient-based research." Yet it is immunologic research that has led to the monoclonal antibodies that are so effective in treating certain cancers, and the bone marrow transplants that can often cure leukemias and lymphomas, Steinman says.

Just $1 a day per American "would go a long way toward bringing cancer immunology to patients in the USA" he says. "Oncologists and patients, I am confident, are surely most significantly behind the felt-need for better outcomes in cancer."

The Annals volume is based on select presentations at the 6th International Vaccine Symposium, held at the Academy in 2008. The conference was organized by Steinman, Olja Finn and Jacques Banchereau with major support from The Hasumi Foundation and additional support from the Esai Foundation and the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Source
Annals of the New York Academy of Science

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