Jul 7, 2021
A cure for cancer? Immunotherapy could be the key.
Tune in to discover:
- How an antiviral response is similar to an anti-tumor response
- The various ways in which cancer evades the immune system
- Which immunotherapies can treat end-stage patients, and how they work
Samantha Bucktrout is the senior director of research at Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, where she focuses on bringing curative immunotherapy for patients with cancer.
She begins by explaining the basics of immunotherapy, noting that all throughout each and every day, our immune systems are at work detecting and eliminating pre-cancerous cells in the body.
For patients who have developed metastasis and where the standard of care has failed, immunotherapy might provide promise. Research in immunology has led to an understanding of the ways in which cancer co-opts the body’s natural ability to regulate the immune system, and thereby actively blocks it from doing its job. Equipped with this knowledge, it’s possible to block the barriers put up by cancer through the use of antibodies.
Immunotherapy, in some cases, can be considered to ‘cure’ patients who otherwise have fatal metastatic processes.
Bucktrout discusses how chemotherapy affects the immune response, when it is used as the sole approach to cancer treatment as opposed to in conjunction with chemotherapy, how cancer cells may have evolved to evade the immune response, and much more.
Press play to hear the full conversation and learn more at
https://www.parkerici.org/.
Episode also available on Apple
Podcasts: apple.co/30PvU9C