T-Cells Fighting Cancer
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Thought this was interesting.
Immune cells that fight cancer become exhausted within hours of first encountering tumors – new research
A type of T cell called cytotoxic T cells can recognize the mutated proteins on cancer cells and should therefore be able to kill them. However, in most patients, cancer cells grow unchecked despite the presence of T cells.
The current explanation scientists have as to why T cells fail to eliminate cancer cells is because they become “exhausted.” The idea is that T cells initially function well when they first face off against cancer cells, but gradually lose their ability to kill the cancer cells after repeated encounters.
Cancer immunotherapies such as immune checkpoint inhibitors and CAR-T cell therapy have shown remarkable promise by inducing long-lasting remission in some patients with otherwise incurable cancers. However, these therapies often fail to induce long-term responses in most patients, and T cell exhaustion is a major culprit.
