April 5, 2017 (Medical News Today)
There has been slow progress in immunotherapy for solid cancers. However, a recent study using adoptive T cell transfer, had some success on ovarian cancer. In this mouse study, the engineered T cells significantly increased survival rates.
The researchers cautioned that it will be some time before this method is ready for clinical trials in humans. There has been more success in treating blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma.
Solid cancers, like breast, ovarian, lung and pancreatic cancer, present more difficulty because access to the tumor can be challenging. The tumor microenvironment including noncancerous cells, molecules and the extracellular matrix surrounding the tumor, present further difficulties.
Findings were reported at the annual meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research in Washington, D.C.
Read more on the challenges of the tumor microenvironment at Medical News Today.
