I thought we should start with a discussion of this article, and then the individual vaccines. I will later post on the vaccines which I am interested in and their potential and current trial opportunities. PLEASE READ THE POST FIRST BEFORE READING THE INITIAL ARTICLE BELOW:
PCa immunotherapy is a therapeutic intervention aimed at stimulating the immune system against PCa. This can be accomplished through activation of T cells or preventing the cancer from inactivating or blocking T cell response or a combination of both. How do we stimulate the immune system? Things that kill cancer cells release cancer antigens that attract antibodies which T cells respond to and the resulting stimulation results in the immune response. These may be referred to as tumor activating antigens (TAA's). An article on antigen vs antibody:
Current clinical trials are investigating monotherapies or combination therapies involving 1)adoptive cellular therapy, 2) viral, DNA vaccines, 3) oncolytic viruses, and 4) immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI).
1) Adoptive Cellular Therapy (ACT) is taking immune cells and activating or modifying them before re-infusing them into the donor--ie: CAR-T or engineered T cells. A Cancer Research Institute article on ACT below:
2) A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins, or one of its surface proteins. DNA or Viral vaccines are vaccines that include some part of the tumor that has tumor activating antigens that induce an immune response.
3) Oncolytic viruses are inactivated viruses that carry tumor antigen material (TAA's) inside which are released after attack on the inactivated virus. These TAA's will then activate T cell response to those antigens.
4) Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors or Check Point Inhibitors (CPI's) work by blocking regulatory or co-inhibitory proteins that may reduce the immune cell/ T cell response. This allows the immune system to continue the attack against tumor cells. From NCI:
As you are light years ahead of me on immunotherapies (past, present and future), I/we appreciate your efforts to assemble the information in this and your several subsequent posts on the topic. Eventually, when I am able to find enough time to dig into these linked posts and the referenced research, I may be able to reply to one or more of them. In the meantime, thanks for your thoughtful contributions in expanding the knowledgebase for our common disease. Keep it coming, Amigo.
Am I Bill Nye, the Science Guy?? LOL... I look forward to your feedback later. I broke my initial post down to several parts. Immunotherapy is the future of cancer research and it is in its' infancy. In bare bones explanation, it is aimed at stimulating the immune system-T cells with the goal of creating memory T cells (T cells that know how to identify cancer cells and rally an immune response for a long period of time) as well as blocking T Regs (Regulatory T cells that block/blunt an immune response)and other immune response modulators. Now, you understand EVERYTHING !!!....ROFL... enjoy the reading and thanks. Happy New Year !!
I was educated today on Scholastic Readers.....how did I miss out on those..?? There is no way to make immunotherapy easy to understand, but I've tried because it is the wave of the future... I think we will see people doing SOC, a vaccine, CAR-T, or BiTE, as well as SM-88 and life expectancy for PCa will double or triple....it will be like HIV...
Looks like 50's for part of the week for you....Nice...enjoy...
I am HUGELY optimistic because we see new drug types like BRD4 inhibitors and CBP and p300 inhibitors, new immune therapies, new radiopharmaceuticals, trials with combos, new treatment regimens like cryosurgery on tumors with immuno drugs and 30 days of sangrostim, etc...The Golden Age of Cancer Research is upon us....add to that improved scans, nanoparticles, and much more... See a reason not to be optimistic...???
As you know, and as I have recounted here before, what you describe is exactly what has happened in CLL (my cancer #1) since I was diagnosed with it 14+ years ago. There can be little doubt that our current SOC approach to PCa is medieval in nature and will be seriously challenged in the years ahead - by your medical SCIENCE.
Keeping your fishing finger on the pulse of such foundational research is invaluable to those of us who are now waiting impatiently for those new treatments to augment and eventually replace the current SOC.
I do find that the environment is changing so rapidly that keeping an eye out is essential. When I was diagnosed Stage 4--one met to the clavicle, I was put on Zytiga with Prednisone and Lupron within a week--SOC post STAMPEDE trial. I had read SABR-COMET trial results and wanted to get SBRT to my one met. My MO said, "I wouldn't do that....it could be dangerous!"....as you are aware, I have had it out with one poster about the value of SBRT, who also described it as "dangerous". Post ORIOLE trial, it is now somewhat SOC for oligometastatic patients who undergo better scans to make sure everything gets treated. Waiting for SOC to catch up with developments is "DANGEROUS". I'll run my own plays, since it is my life...SOC--absolutely, but I pick the add ons...
CLL is changing so rapidly with new MAB's, CAR-T, etc that it is now like HIV from what I have read. We need to get PCa to that status IMHO.
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