Hello FPC members,
This is a growing area of research in cancers as getting the body's immune system to engage in the fight has real promise in getting to cures and prolonged remissions. The challenge is that PCa is considered a "cold tumor" with an explanation from the article below: PCa is a “cold tumor,” meaning that it is characterized by low infiltration of T-cells at the tumor microenvironment. “Although the reasons vary for this phenomenon, an important reason is limited neoantigens,” Dr Ponnazhagan explained. “Some solid tumors, like a subset of colorectal cancers, are characterized by high mutation rates that make them immunologically reactive tumors, characterized by high T-cell infiltration. For successfully treating cold tumors by immunotherapy, approaches should take into effect strategies to overcome this limitation.”
uab.edu/medicine/pathology/...
One of the prostate cancer vaccines I will cover involves introduction of a high number of neoantigens. Neoantigens are mutated antigens specifically expressed by tumor tissue and are not expressed on the surface of normal cells. Getting the immune system to recognize these and thus launch an attack by the immune system on PCa being the goal in vaccines. Some of the other things covered in the breakout session involves the use of vaccines with other drugs. As I have stated numerous times, the path of the future in Oncology involves using a variety of approaches including AR drugs, Check Point inhibitors, PARP inhibitors, BRD4 inhibitors, Radiopharmaceuticals, "Sensitizer" drugs like Veyonda, etc...
I hope you enjoy the breakout session and that it gives you some perspective where research is headed...
cancerresearch.org/blog/nov...
The Science is Coming !!! and it gives us...HOPE !!!
Don Pescado
