New Discovery Could Lead to Improved Cancer Treatment
The finding could improve cancer immunotherapy, a promising therapy that targets cancer cells using the body’s own immune system rather than radiation.
Previously regarded merely as an immune system helper, a kind of white blood cell now seems to be the initiator of the body’s defenses against cancerous tumors. The finding could improve cancer immunotherapy, a promising treatment that targets cancer cells using the body’s own immune system rather than radiation.
Researchers from Washington State University discovered in an animal study that a population of T cells known as CD4-positive helper T cells contributed to the initiation of a chain of antitumor immunity defenses that improves the ability of killer cells to infiltrate melanoma and breast cancer tumors. T cells are a subset of white blood cells called lymphocytes, which circulate all throughout the body via the lymphatic system.
