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Immunotherapy for Lung Cancer
Lung cancer is a formidable disease. Even when it is diagnosed at its earliest stage and removed with surgery, the chance of recurrence is 30 percent to 40 percent. Subsequent treatment, such as chemotherapy, only marginally reduces those chances.
Preventing the cancer from returning is the focus of a clinical study at Froedtert & The Medical College of Wisconsin. “One of the leading thoughts is to teach the body to kill off cancer cells,” said Nicholas Choong, MD, Medical College of Wisconsin medical oncologist and principal investigator of a study called MAGRIT.
“This study involves immunotherapy, where we train the body to identify a certain protein on the cancer and destroy it,” he said. In effect, researchers develop a vaccine for the patient.
International in scope, the MAGRIT study is looking at nonsmall cell lung cancer, the kind that occurs in about 80 percent of cases. The specific protein being studied, however, is present in only 20 percent of lung cancer patients, according to Dr. Choong. “We don’t know why certain cells have this protein, but the cells that have it tend to behave more aggressively—all the more reason to develop something that would be effective against it,” he said. “Immunotherapy could become a future standard of care.”
To inquire about this study, call 414-805-3666 or 800-272-3666. Patients can also visit clinicaltrials.gov or immunotherapyforcancer.info.
Source: Froedtert Today Date: January 2010 |
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