BioCentury
ARTICLE | Targets & Mechanisms

Staking out foxholes

Two MSKCC studies, two potential ways to improve antitumor immunity

February 18, 2016 8:00 AM UTC

A pair of studies from a Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) lab has uncovered two new handles for tuning the immune system to fight solid tumors. By focusing on processes that regulate immune suppression and surveillance, the team identified a trafficking pathway and a subset of early responder T cells that it hopes will yield new targets for regulating antitumor immunity.

Until now, much of the focus in the field has been on agents that boost antitumor immunity by enhancing the ability of T cells to respond to tumor antigens. But finding the right balance of T cell activity can be a problem, as the immunosuppressive environment of solid tumors often blunts T cell efficacy, while excessive T cell responses cause autoimmune pathology...