do you know? Without the protection of the immune system, we may only be able to live for a few hours. The immune system is the best "doctor" in the world. It works 24 hours a day and is the best weapon to monitor and defend against pathogens and cancer cells, protecting us from harm.
The internal environment of our human body is like a small kingdom, and it is always in fierce struggles for attack and defense.
The human body is composed of about 60 trillion cells, which divide and proliferate every day, maintaining the body's life function and self-renewal. This is a wonderful and beautiful life phenomenon. However, under the influence of carcinogens (smoking, ionizing radiation, Helicobacter pylori, etc.), about 500,000 to 1 million cells can mutate during replication every day, and some mutated cells further become cancer cells.
The best "doctor" in the human body - How does the immune system help us clear cancer cells?
immune system is like an army defending this country. It consists of immune organ and tissues, immune cells and immune molecules. It has a command center-command tower, sentries, and combat soldiers.
When cancer cells are found, the "sentinel" NK cells of the immune system will be the first to go to the tumor microenvironment to kill; antigen presenting cells (DCs) are like command centers. When they collect information about cancer cells, they will pass this information to killer T cells to go to the front line to remove cancer cells. Under normal circumstances, the immune system will precisely regulate, cooperate closely, and cooperate with each other to ensure that the human body is away from the threat of cancer.
1 "whistleblower" in the immune system - NK cells
NK cells (natural killer cell) are one of the important members of immune cells, and the third group of is the T and B cells . The target cell killed by NK cells is mainly tumor cells, virus-infected cells, larger pathogens (such as fungi and parasites), and the organs and tissues of allogeneic transplantation of , etc. In immune defense, NK cells are the first to directly kill cancer cells when they reach the tumor microenvironment. At the same time, they will also sound the horn of war, secretly secret weapon chemokine , recruit dendritic cells (CD103 +DC), which is equivalent to telling other immune corps in the body to come and fight together. Therefore, in the war between and cancer cells, NK cells are the most awesome " whistle blowing "!
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Although NK cells can quickly defend and directly attack tumor cells, the number of NK cells in the human body is small, accounting for only 10% of white blood cells . In addition, studies have found that after the age of 25, human immunity decreases and the number of NK cells becomes smaller. The number and activity of NK cells in the body of tumor patients and patients after tumor surgery have changed to certain changes, and they cannot play a very effective role in anti-cancer.
In order to improve the activity and number of NK cells in the body, the researchers obtained NK cells from human blood, expanded and cultured, so that their number increased to 1,000 times, reaching 1 billion to 5 billion, and then returned to the body, thereby achieving the purpose of enhancing immunity and prolonging survival. At present, the international clinical research of NK cells has made breakthrough progress. Amazing clinical data have been obtained in various entities and hematology such as lung cancer, gastric cancer , ovarian cancer, leukemia , lymphoma and other entities and hematology:
Lung cancer:
A study showed that the therapeutic effect of pembrolizumab combined with NK cell therapy is nearly 1 times that of pembrolizumab alone, and the overall survival and progression-free survival of the combined treatment group were significantly extended.Original link: Immune King Combination! The first NK cell combined with PD-1 in China's treatment of non-small cell lung cancer data is released!
gastric cancer:
The US FDA grants a brand new cell therapy - genetically modified, frozen human placental hematopoietic stem cell-derived natural killer (NK) cells CYNK-101 therapy fast track qualification! If everything goes well, patients with advanced gastric cancer are expected to usher in a brand new combination of immune therapies and achieve longer survival. Original link: Important! FDA grants a brand new NK cell therapy combined with chemotherapy for the first-line treatment of advanced gastric cancer Fast-channel
Ovarian cancer:
The first "ready-to-use" CAR-NK therapy clinical trial in China has been approved. This is a targeted mesothelin (MSLN) chimeric antigen receptor NK cell (CAR-NK) injection for the treatment of advanced epithelial ovarian cancer.
Lymphoma:
A preliminary clinical trial of umbilical blood-derived natural killer (cbNK) cells combined with innate cell conjugate (ICE®) AFM13 (CD16A/CD30) in the treatment of lymphoma: The objective response rate reached 100% caused a huge sensation. Original link: objective relief rate is 100%! The new NK cell therapy is emerging!
In addition, Japan's cell immunotherapy is one of the first countries in the world to obtain regeneration medical approval as an adjuvant treatment. A large number of patients have obtained more NK cells and other latest anti-cancer technologies through the Global Oncology Doctor Network. If economic conditions allow, can be initially evaluated.
2 "Special Force" in the immune system-T cells
Everyone has a powerful immune cell in their bodies, protecting us from cancer at all times. It's the "killer" T cell. In immune defense, T cells play an irreplaceable role. They are special forces in the human body. Once they receive signals from dendritic cells, they can identify and eliminate cancer cells in a very precise way. There are billions of T cells in the human body, and these T cells are fighting fiercely with cancer cells every moment. (The picture below is a team from the National Institute of Technology and Cambridge University using lattice layer light microscopy technology to continuously capture the scene of the battle between T cells and cancer cells.)
The picture shows a T cell (red) fighting with cancer cells in person and in person
However, when there is a problem with the T cells, it will give cancer cells an opportunity to take advantage of it!
function is insufficient: cancer cells disguise themselves, making T cells unable to recognize and kill;
insufficient: immune cells in the body have decreased, and there is not enough force to eliminate cancer cells.
In the past two years, the four T-cell-based immunotherapy CAR-Th, TCR-Th, TILs, and CTL have made unprecedented breakthroughs. The dream of turning its own immune cells into anti-cancer tools to remove tumors throughout the body has become a reality. These new therapies in clinical experiments and markets have helped thousands of tumor patients around the world.
Lung Cancer: The latest clinical data from shows that TIL therapy can achieve the overall response rate of 5% for advanced lung cancer.
gastric cancer: The first MTCA-CTL solid tumor cell therapy drug, KACM001 autologous lymphocyte injection product, has also been approved by the China Medical Products Administration for formal clinical trials (acceptance number: CXSL2200052), and plans to combine tegio/ oxaliplatin or cisplatin for locally advanced unresectable or metastatic gastric cancer.
Helectron cancer : Our country has developed the first solid tumor CAR-T cell therapy for GPC3. The first complete remission case reported after the combined treatment of CAR-T cells and targeted drugs was published in the journal Frontiers in Immunology, an internationally renowned immunology journal.
melanoma: In January 2022, the FDA approved the world's first solid tumor TCR-T therapy-tebentafusp-tebn (Kimmtrak, Immunocore Limited), a bispecific gp100 peptide-HLA-oriented CD3 T cell conjugator for HLA-A*02:01 positive unresectable or metastatic uveal melanoma.
In addition, there are a large number of T-cell-based immunotherapy under investigation, which means that the new biological immunotherapy after traditional surgery and chemotherapy is getting closer and closer to the official approval for launch!
3 "command" in the immune system - dendritic cells
dendritic cells are the most powerful antigen presenting cell known to the body. The biggest feature is that it can stimulate the proliferation of initial T cells. Therefore, DC is the initiator of the body's immune response and has a unique position in the induction of immune response. Dendritic cells fully activate T cells in the body to promote the clearance of tumors by T cells. Dendritic cells can also promote T cell enrichment and enhance T cell activation.
Although there are such dendritic cells in the human immune system, their number and vitality are not enough to encircle and annihilate cancerous cells. So, after a lot of research, researchers will have the potential to become precursor cells of dendritic cells isolated from the blood through specific methods. With the help of a specific messenger, cells isolated in the test tube can gain immunity. When somatic cells mature into dendritic cells, they can capture specific tumor antigens and effectively kill cancer cells. When the dendritic cells reconstructed in vitro are returned to the body, the resting T cells can be activated to generate the cells that first immune response to . The activated T cells can be amplified in a dot and proliferated further. One dendritic can activate 00~3000 T cells. Some T cells quickly exert huge anti-cancer effects, while the other will survive for more than ten years to decades and become memory T cells. The next time you are exposed to low-dose antigen, you can have a high-intensity immune response. Therefore, an immune protection system based on dendritic cell repair and reconstruction can continue to work for decades and can re-enter the cycle under appropriate conditions to play a long-term anti-cancer effect.
At present, dendritic cell vaccines for various types of cancer have been successfully developed internationally.
Lung cancer dendritic cell vaccine
DCVAC/LuCa is a dendritic cell vaccine for patients with non-small cell lung cancer developed by a biotechnology company called SOTIO in the United States. By fusing dendritic cells with the antigen substance released by the autologous lung cancer cells of the patient after lying and death, dendritic cells have the ability to recognize lung cancer cells and are amplified in vitro and returned to the patient for treatment. Data released at the ASCO Conference in 2019 showed that the efficacy of the first-line standard chemotherapy regimen combined with dendritic cell therapy DCVAC/LuCa is accurate.
Brain tumor dendritic cell vaccine
DCVax-L vaccine is a dendritic cell vaccine specifically for patients with brain glioma developed by the American biotechnology company Northwest Biotherapeutics. What’s unique about this vaccine is that it is not targeting a single antigen, but a personalized immunotherapy that uses the patient’s own tumor specimens to customize. The 5-year survival rate statistics show that the vaccine group was 13%, while the control group was only 5.7%, more than doubled! Original link: 15 years to sharpen a sword! The results of the latest Phase III clinical trial of the brain tumor dendritic vaccine DCVax-L were released
gastric cancer dendritic cell vaccine
In June 2022, a new antigen vaccine research published in the sub-blog of Nature caused a huge sensation. The new cancer vaccine is a personalized monocyte -derived dendritic cell vaccine called Neo-MoDC with neoantigen.After receiving the Neo-MoDC (personalized neoantigen-loaded dendritic cell) vaccine and PD-1 for the first time, the lesion completely disappeared and lasted for up to 25 months. This is the first known study to achieve complete and lasting tumor regression through neoantigen-based DC vaccine and PD-1 treatment in gastric cancer, which is of milestone significance!
Original link: neoantigens dendritic cell vaccine has made a major breakthrough! Patients with advanced cancer receive long-lasting complete remission!
Breast Cancer Dendritic Cell Vaccine
A HER-2 pulsed DC1 vaccine trial conducted by H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Institute will test the safety and immunogenicity of high- and moderate-expression of breast cancer to prevent recurrence of breast cancer.
Ovarian Carcinoma Dendritic Cell Vaccine
DCVAC/OvCa Dendritic Cell Vaccine Therapy was developed by a company called SOTIO International Biotechnology. The results showed that the overall survival (OS) of patients with advanced relapsed ovarian cancer can significantly increase by 13.4 months, which is equivalent to an extension of more than one year. The overall survival of is extended by 13.4 months! New dendritic cell immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy significantly prolongs the overall survival of advanced ovarian cancer!
melanoma dendritic cell vaccine
A biopharmaceutical company in the United States, Elios Therapeutics, a U.S.-based biopharmaceutical company, has developed an innovative autologous, particle delivery, dendritic cell tumor vaccine-TLPLDC, which has triggered a strong response in melanoma patients. The results showed that the recurrence rate in the placebo group was 56%, and the recurrence rate in the TLPLDC vaccine group was 29%, which means that the relative risk of disease recurrence was statistically significantly reduced by 50%!
In addition to the above research, dendritic cell vaccines in some countries have officially entered clinical application. Some patients with early-stage tumors in can consider using vaccines combined with chemoradiation and therapy after surgery, which can kill residual cancer cells, produce immune memory, prevent cancer recurrence and metastasis .
The human immune system is the best "doctor" in the world. It works 24 hours a day to protect us from invaders. Therefore, please remember to protect these powerful immune cells and ensure that our own immune function is in a healthy state. I also hope that every patient can find an immune regulation method that suits them and overcomes cancer!
This article is original by Global Oncology Doctor Network. Reproduction of
