2017
December
Intentional mutagenesis: making cancer worse to make it better
December 20, 2017
Although it seems counterintuitive that shutting down DNA repair mechanisms in cancer could actually improve prognosis, that’s exactly the concept that Germano et al. present in a letter published in Nature. They propose that when mismatch repair (MMR) mechanisms are disrupted in colorectal tumors, new mutations, and thus new potential neoantigens, continually arise...
The battle of receptors: CAR vs TCR
December 13, 2017
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells have successfully induced remission in patients with relapsed or refractory B cell malignancies, but a substantial portion of patients eventually relapse. Although CAR expansion and persistence are considered important attributes for long-term benefit, systematic evaluation of contributing factors has been complicated by reliance on xenograft models. In...
Why CSF1R inhibition doesn’t slow tumor growth - and how it could
December 6, 2017
CSF1R inhibition for the depletion of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) seemed like a promising therapeutic strategy, but while TAM depletion occurred as expected, antitumor efficacy has been incredibly limited. To understand why, Kumar et al., in a study published in Cancer Cell, revealed the additional immunosuppressive mechanism activated by CSF1R inhibition and exploited this...
