Feature Channels: Immunology

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Combining the kinase inhibitor ibrutinib with an investigational personalized cellular therapy known as CTL119 can lead to complete remission in patients with high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center (ACC). The team will present the results from its pilot study of this combination therapy during the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting (Abstract # 193355).

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A novel vaccine therapy can generate immune responses in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCCa), according to researchers at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The treatment specifically targets human papillomavirus (HPV), which is frequently associated with HNSCCa, to trigger the immune response. Researchers will present the results of their pilot study during the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in Chicago (Abstract #6073).

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Ludwig Cancer Research released today the full scope of Ludwig’s participation at this year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago, June 2-6.

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The American Society of Clinical Oncology has named University of Pennsylvania cancer and HIV gene therapy pioneer Carl June, MD, as the 2017 winner of the David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award. The honor goes to an oncologist who has made outstanding contributions to cancer research, diagnosis, and treatment. In addition to receiving the award, June will give the Karnofsky Lecture on Saturday, June 3, during the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual meeting in Chicago.

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Researchers at the University of Birmingham have made a breakthrough in the understanding of how our genetic make-up can impact on the activity of the immune system and our ability to fight cancer.

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Combo of T-cell therapy, newly FDA-approved drug and another immunotherapeutic agent kept cancer at bay for three out of four patients with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma. The findings will be presented June 5 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

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Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine report new evidence that immune cells infected with a latent form of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are able to proliferate, replenishing the reservoir of virus that is resistant to antiretroviral drug therapy. Although HIV can be controlled with therapy in most cases, the proliferation of such reservoir cells pose a persistent barrier to developing a cure for HIV, researchers say.

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The combination of pembrolizumab and the checkpoint inhibitor known as epacadostat is leading to promising responses and is generally well tolerated in patients with triple-negative breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, squamous cell cancer of the head and neck, and several other cancers, according to researchers from the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania. Their findings also showed that adding pembrolizumab to standard therapies for breast cancer improved the number of patients achieving a pathological complete response.

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Scientists could be one step closer to developing long-awaited vaccines against viruses such as Zika, West Nile or HIV, thanks to research at Penn State College of Medicine.

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Changing natural electrical signaling in non-neural cells improves innate immune response to bacterial infections and injury. Tadpoles that received therapeutics, including those used in humans for other purposes, which depolarized their cells had higher survival rates when infected with E. coli than controls. The research has applications for treatment of emerging diseases and traumatic injury in humans.

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A new study by UCLA scientists has found that the breakthrough immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab can be more effective in improving survival in people with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) if they have previously received radiation therapy, compared to those without a history of radiation treatment.

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With the drastic increase in the number of unusual dolphin strandings and deaths along the southeastern coast of the U.S. and elsewhere, finding specific antibodies to test, monitor and document their immune health is critical.

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A study from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center that will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting on June 5 in Chicago shows that asymptomatic women who have been treated for early-stage breast cancer often undergo advanced imaging and other tests that provide little if any medical benefit, could have harmful effects and may increase their financial burden.

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A team of researchers from the University of Delaware have discovered how to label and light the sugar backbone of a bacterial cell wall. The findings will advance immune system research.

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A new study led by researchers at Roswell Park Cancer Institute establishes a connection between a sedentary lifestyle and risk of developing kidney or bladder cancer.

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ISPOR hosted a morning session at its 22nd Annual International Meeting in Boston, MA, USA that examined cost-effectiveness models for innovative oncology treatments.

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The identification of 16 additional genetic markers will help researchers get closer to understanding how — and why — psoriasis develops.

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If every cell in our body is a factory, viruses are industrial spies who try to break in and take over. New findings about how one of the most mysterious types of spy – polyomaviruses -- accomplishes this feat could aid the fight against Merkel cell carcinoma, and diseases in organ transplant and cancer patients.

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A Chicago-area family with a deep commitment to supporting science and medicine is giving $100 million to establish The Duchossois Family Institute at the University of Chicago Medicine, which seeks to accelerate research and interventions based on how the human immune system, microbiome and genetics interact to maintain health.

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data from four early-phase immunotherapy combination trials will be presented at the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual meeting in Chicago on June 5, 2017.

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Immune diseases like multiple sclerosis and hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis unleash destructive waves of inflammation on the body, causing death or a lifetime of illness and physical impairment. With safe and effective treatments in short supply, scientists report in PNAS Early Edition (Proceeding of the National Academy of Science) discovery of an experimental treatment that targets an Achilles heel of activated immune cells – killing them off and stopping autoimmune damage.

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Superficially, psoriasis and atopic dermatitis may appear similar but their commonalities are only skin deep. Atopic dermatitis, also known as eczema, is primarily driven by an allergic reaction, while psoriasis is considered an autoimmune disease. Nevertheless, researchers at La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology were able to pinpoint a common driver of skin inflammation in both diseases.

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Two T cell biomarkers appear to predict the survival trajectory of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a lung disease that has a varied, but ultimately devastating, impact on patients, according to new research presented at the ATS 2017 International Conference.

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A new clinical trial provides a new option for kidney cancer patients and adds to Rush’s wider research efforts towards identifying immune system biomarkers to better predict which immunotherapy will work best for individuals no matter which cancer they’re fighting.

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Johns Hopkins researchers say they have identified a new way that cells in the brain alert the rest of the body to recruit immune cells when the brain is injured. The work was completed in mouse models that mimic infection, stroke or trauma in humans.

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With a recent $1.8 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health, Brandon DeKosky’s lab is using high-throughput techniques to analyze the behavior of B cells in the body.

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African Americans and other minorities are at a higher risk for certain types of cancer, yet they continue to be underrepresented in clinical trials for drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

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Some of the world's leading experts in the field of autoimmune vasculitis research will present at the 2017 International Vasculitis Symposium in Chicago. Sessions will include information about the latest vasculitis research, and treatment and management of autoimmune vasculitis.

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Paper on immunotherapy for head and neck cancer reports favorable results.

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By using induced pluripotent stem cells to create endothelial cells that line blood vessels in the brain for the first time for a neurodegenerative disease, University of California, Irvine neurobiologists and colleagues have learned why Huntington’s disease patients have defects in the blood-brain barrier that contribute to the symptoms of this fatal disorder.

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Researchers have found a protein that stops cancer’s ability to prevent the immune system from destroying cancer cells. The protein, free C3d, has the potential to be developed into a cancer vaccine and a cancer treatment.

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A study led by researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy has generated the first comprehensive catalog of diseases associated with variations in human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes that regulate the body’s immune system.

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A new study by scientists at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center could be a significant step toward understanding how certain cases of advanced melanoma shield themselves from pembrolizumab, the FDA-approved treatment that harnesses the immune system to attack the disease.

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After phase 1 results of Seattle Children’s Pediatric Leukemia Adoptive Therapy (PLAT-02) trial have shown T-cell immunotherapy to be effective in getting 93 percent of patients with relapsed or refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) into complete initial remission, researchers have now opened a first-in-human clinical trial aimed at reducing the rate of relapse after the therapy, which is about 50 percent.

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An international team of researchers has discovered that a microRNA produced by certain white blood cells can prevent excessive inflammation in the intestine. The study, “Myeloid-derived miR-223 regulates intestinal inflammation via repression of the NLRP3 inflammasome,” which will be published May 9 in The Journal of Experimental Medicine, shows that synthetic versions of this microRNA can reduce intestinal inflammation in mice and suggests a new therapeutic approach to treating patients with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis.

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Systemic therapy consisting of corticosteroids and immunosuppressants preserved vision of uveitis patients better – and had fewer adverse outcomes – than a long-lasting corticosteroid intraocular implant, according to a clinical trial funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI). After seven years, visual acuity on average remained stable among participants on systemic therapy but declined by an average of six letters (about one line on an eye chart) among participants who had the implant. NEI is part of the National Institutes of Health.

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Nearly one-third of beneficial bacteria in baby’s intestinal tract comes directly from mother’s milk, according to study of 107 mother-baby pairs

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The fight against skin cancer just got a new weapon. For years, melanoma researchers have studied samples that were considered uniform in size and color, making them easier to examine by more conventional means. But melanomas don’t always come in the same shape and hue; often, melanomas are irregular and dark, making them difficult to investigate. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have devised a new tool to detect and analyze single melanoma cells that are more representative of the skin cancers developed by most patients. The study, recently reported in Analyst published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, outlines the new techniques that could lead to better and faster diagnoses for the life-threatening disease.

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Immunotherapy, which has achieved remarkable results in late-stage lung cancer patients, can also hold great hope for newly diagnosed patients, cutting the deadly disease off before it has the chance to take hold and offering a potential cure, according to a new Mount Sinai study published today in Cell.

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The University of Alabama at Birmingham and two partner institutions have received a European patent for their novel approach to fighting cancer, an approach that is led by the UAB spinoff biopharmaceutical company Incysus Ltd.

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A team of Florida State University researchers is using mathematical modeling to find the best and most effective chemotherapy treatments for cancer patients.

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Some types of sarcomas elicit a greater immune response than others, which sheds light on how immunotherapy could be used for this connective-tissue cancer, according to a new study in Cancer. Photos, video available: http://www.fredhutch.org/en/news/media-relations/bios-photos/pollack-seth.html

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Treating donor corneas with a cocktail of molecules prior to transplanting to a host may improve survival of grafts and, thus, outcomes in high-risk corneal transplant patients, according to a new study led by researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear.

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Of the 1,000 GI cancer patients seen at his clinic last year, nearly half were under age 50, says John L. Marshall, MD, director of the Ruesch Center for the Cure of Gastrointestinal Cancers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and chief of hematology and oncology at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. Many are in their 20s and 30s; one was just 17.

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Radiotherapy alone is often used to treat early-stage glottic cancer (ESGC), a cancer of the vocal chords, however, the optimal radiation treatment schedule remains unknown, until now.

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Experts at Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) and McMaster University, in partnership with The Ottawa Hospital, have begun a clinical trial to determine if the unique experimental immunotherapy combination may be able to treat non-small cell lung cancer. The experimental therapy combines two different viruses with an approved drug to stimulate the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells.

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Patients who expressed the tumor antigen NY-ESO-1 had more aggressive cancers and were more likely to die early from their disease, according to a large study conducted by Roswell Park Cancer Institute researchers and published online ahead of print in the journal Gynecologic Oncology.

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A biopolymer structure enriched with nutrients shows how immunotherapy could be adapted for solid tumors, according to study in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

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In a new study presented today at the APS annual meeting at Experimental Biology 2017, researchers have found that the immune system’s natural killer (NK) cells activate and change in response to placental ischemia. Disrupting these altered cells seems to blunt some of the dangerous complications of the condition, including high blood pressure (hypertension) and inflammation in the mother and growth restriction in the fetus.