New Discovery Blocks Breast Cancer Growth
Reported June 10, 2005
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — An experimental therapy known as IL-2 immunotoxin may stop breast cancer from growing while boosting the immune system. Mayo Clinic researchers announced the discovery at the Era of Hope meeting for the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program meeting in Philadelphia.
Researchers say they found a mechanism that blocks the bodys natural ability to reject breast cancer, and they have an experimental therapy to remove that block. Furthermore, the treatment did not harm the immune system, but rather, boosted it.
In experiments on mice, animals that got the toxic injections to kill the immune system blockages had tumors one-tenth the size of the those that did not get the injections.
The goal of the research is to prevent breast cancer from recurring in women whove already had the disease go into remission. This new finding may lead to safer, gentler therapies. Evidence is emerging that some of the effects of chemotherapy are due to depleting T-regulatory (T-reg) cells, says Keith Knutson, Ph.D., the Mayo Clinic immunology researcher who led the study. The strategy we use in our investigation may actually be a way to target the T-regs directly, without using the indirect route of chemotherapy. Depleting T-regulatory cells may boost natural immunity against breast cancer.
Knutson says further studies must validate these findings before the treatment can be used in humans.
SOURCE: The Era of Hope Meeting for the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program in Philadelphia, June 8-11, 2005