Cellular therapy & immunotherapy is an exciting area of science

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Immunotherapy is treatment that uses certain parts of a person’s immune system to fight diseases such as cancer. This can be done in a couple of ways: Stimulating your own immune system to work harder or smarter to attack cancer cells, Giving you immune system components, such as man-made immune system proteins. Some types of immunotherapy are also sometimes called biologic therapy or biotherapy. In the last few decades immunotherapy has become an important part of treating some types of cancer. Newer types of immune treatments are now being studied, and they’ll impact how we treat cancer in the future.

T-cell is a lymphocyte of a type produced or processed by the thymus gland and actively participating in the immune response.

For years, the foundations of cancer treatment were surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy.


Over the last two decades, targeted therapies that target cancer cells by homing in on specific molecular changes seen primarily in those cells have also cemented themselves as standard treatments for many cancers.

But over the past several years, immunotherapy therapies that enlist and strengthen the power of a patient’s immune system to attack tumors—has emerged as what many in the cancer community now call the “fifth pillar” of cancer treatment.

STEPS IN CAR-T CELL THERAPIES:

#1: Apheresis/Leukapheres: CAR T cell therapy begins with collection of the patient’s blood and separation of the lymphocytes through apheresis* The procedure is performed at the clinic or infusion center by the patient’s healthcare team.

#2: Transport & Handling:  Once collected, the lymphocytes are immediately packaged by the clinic or infusion center for hand delivery to a centralized manufacturing facility. The full manufacturing process can take from 10 days to several weeks to complete.

#3:  Cell Engineering : The CAR T cell manufacturing facility is responsible for post-apheresis processing, activation, transduction, and expansion of the CAR T cells.

#4: CAR T Infusion: The patient’s healthcare team administers the prepared CAR T cell therapy. The infusion process usually takes about 1 hour, but some patients may need to remain in the hospital for a number of days.

The animation created by Nature Reviews Cancer and Nature Reviews Immunology illustrates how tumour cells are sensed and destroyed by cells of the immune system and how tumours can evolve to evade immune-mediated elimination. Scientists are developing new immunotherapies that help the immune system to ‘fight back’  the animation explains how these exciting new drugs work.

The UK’s 100,000 Genomes Project has hit its target of sequencing the complete genetic blueprints of 100,000 National Health Service patients with cancers and rare diseases. Data from the genomes is set to both benefit the 85,000 patients who contributed their DNA and to assist medical research.

The project has now hit 100,249 genomes sequence – more than the number of patients because every participant with cancer has three genomes sequenced. Two are taken from healthy and cancerous cells within a tumour and the third is taken from blood. Currently the project is focusing on some 17 cancers, including both common and rare forms, and around 1200 rare diseases affecting children and adults.  Successful delivery of the 100,000 Genomes Project enabled  to achieve a number of ambitions, including:

• increase understanding of genetic variants leading to new treatments and diagnostics
• accelerated the uptake of advanced genomic medicine integrated into the NHS
• promoted greater public understanding of the benefits of genomic medicine
• stimulated the UK life sciences industry and commercial activity in genomics

I of VI natural serial killer: in action

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Ii of VI the programmed serial killer: chimeric antigen receptors (C.A.R.s)

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III of VI James Allison's Cancer Research Breakthrough

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IV of VI tumour immunology & immunotherapy

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V of VI understanding cancer genomics

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VI of VI what is leukemia

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Stem cells found in the bone marrow are crucial for our health because they are needed to become new blood cells that sustain and protect our bodies. But when the transformation goes wrong, harmful mutations can cause the cells to start replicating without control -- a type of cancer known as leukemia. Danilo Allegra and Dania Puggioni explain how this happens and how certain treatments provide hope for those suffering from the disease.

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