solid tumors

A team from the Institute for Research and Innovation in Health at the University of Porto (i3S), led by Salomé Pinho, has discovered a new strategy to make (CAR-)T cell therapies more effective against solid tumors. The findings were published in Cancer Immunology Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

During the past few years, the establishment of immunotherapy (e.i. stimulation of the immune system to recognize and kill malignant cells) as a reliable therapeutic option to tackle cancer, has shifted the paradigm of cancer treatment. Among the different classes of cancer immunotherapies, including checkpoint inhibitor monoclonal antibodies (2018 Nobel Prize Physiology or Medicine), adoptive T cell therapies (ACTs), harboring CAR-T cells, are emerging as a revolutionary strategy to eliminate tumors.

O estabelecimento da imunoterapia - estimulação do sistema imunitário para que este reconheça e destrua as células tumorais - como uma abordagem terapêutica eficaz no combate ao cancro, é, indubitavelmente, um dos maiores marcos no tratamento das doenças oncológicas dos últimos anos.