News Item

01/12/09 | Implant found to successfully instruct mouse immune systems to destroy melanoma tumors.

News BBC (11/26) reports, "An implant placed under the skin can instruct the immune system to attack and kill cancer cells, at least in mice, say researchers. It is the first 'cancer vaccine' delivered in the form of a plastic implant that can destroy tumours, say the Harvard University team." The implant "works by attracting certain immune cells and showing them what the tumour in question looks like." It "releases chemicals that attract a specific type of immune cell called a dendritic cell." Those cells are then "exposed to proteins found on the surface of the cancer cells to be targeted. With this information, the dendritic cells move on to the lymph nodes where they tell another type of immune cell, known as T cells, to hunt down and kill the cancer cells."

        The Los Angeles Times (11/2, Healy) "Booster Shots" blog explained, "The substances on the disk caused the immune system to mount an attack on cancer cells and eliminated melanoma tumors." The Times also noted that the "study was published this week in the journal Science Translational Medicine."