In our ongoing battle against cancer, we continue to find new ways to fight it. In light of lung cancer, surgery and chemo/radiotherapy seem to only slightly improve the the survival of patients. What if, we were able to tackle this problem by boosting our health, or allowing our own body to defeat the cancerous tumor? With this in mind, new technology and an urgent need to find a better option has produced some promising alternatives. In comes T cell and dendritic cell therapy. What is this? Many describe it as a cancer “vaccine” of sorts that arises from your own blood.
How do these work? Dendritic cells that are immature are taken from your bone marrow and are then exposed to antigens. These cells are able to mature and then migrate to the lymph node. A study shows that it is here where they are recruited to the tumor microenvironment. A specific progenitor of a DC cell is the pDC cell. These are able to secret interferon alpha and beta when stimulated with toll-like receptor agonists. Subsequently, they are able to induce cell growth. The pathway by which they do so is depicted below.
With every therapy there are bound to be adverse effects that result. While this therapy is beginning to gain traction as an effective treatment short-term, it is important to consider the long-term effects as well. In a study looking at CAR T cancer treatment, it was found that T cell therapy could actually pose several interesting adverse long-term side effects. This study found that 1 of 5 people in the cohort scored at least 1 standard deviation lower than the general and cancer population’s means in global mental health. Additionally, the results showed similar effects on physical health. These outcomes prove to be of importance in considering what needs to be addressed in the future. For example, should we be offering these patients more mental health services?
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