Something unusual happened when Professor Andrew Sewell and the T-Cell Modulation Group at the University of Cardiff put the blood of a healthy donor in a petri dish with some cancer cells. What grew in the blood was a T-cell that no one had seen before. This T-cell attacked the cancer cells and destroyed them. Sewell and his team did what all bench...
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Nobel Prize in Medicine, Dr. James Allison and “Hope”
At a press briefing at the International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference in New York, held October 1 just after receiving notification from the Nobel committee, Dr. James Allison said that the prize “should give patients hope because we’ve got things that we know work. If this didn’t work, there would have been no prize.” This “work”...
Read MoreCancer Vaccines
When I think of vaccines, I think of the MMRV (measles, mumps, rubella and varicella) vaccines which help our bodies establish immunity against diseases that used to kill. Now, there are vaccines being created for cancer. The rise of cancer vaccines According to Dr. Nora Disis, an oncologist and researcher in cancer vaccines at the University of...
Read More5 Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Your Blood
Blood, your own private sea, moves through your body because of your powerful, pumping heart. Through blood, every cell in your body communicates with one another. What do you know about this special fluid? Your blood is not just fluid. There are four components to your blood: plasma, red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. The liquid...
Read MoreQuick Guide: Understanding the Importance of the FDA’s Keytruda Approval
In July 2015, we published a post called Patients Included In Research: Studying Cancer by Mutation Not Organ. In that post, we shared the goal that cancers would be treated not by the site of origin, but rather by their genetic features. Achieving this goal is closer than you think! This week the FDA announced accelerated approval** of a...
Read More5 Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Your Spleen
Someone next to you in the elevator is coughing, sneezing and hacking away. Meanwhile, inside your body, your spleen is busily producing the lymphocytes (white blood cells) that create antibodies to attack the viruses and bacteria to which you are being exposed. This organ is between four and five inches long (about the size of a fist) and located on the...
Read MoreCancer Immunotherapy: Infographic
The Cancer Research Institute has created an infographic to explain cancer immunotherapy. Cancer immunotherapy is an incredible resource to treat cancer. Essentially, the immune system is activated and its ability to remove specific cancer cells is re-enabled. The infographic below explains the components of the immune system that are...
Read MorePreventing Metastases: Researching Tricky Breast Cancer Cells
Breast Cancer Research When Dr. Susan Love, author of The Breast Book, writes about recent research she’s learned, breast cancer bloggers take notice. Dr. Love’s recent report on research at the American Association of Cancer Research 2014 is one example. In her post she notes that research is moving toward finding ways to add to the...
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