Immunotherapy Approaches to Cancer

Richard DiVenuto is a New York IT and biotech consultant with a background extending to Florida, California, and Boston, Massachusetts. One focus for Richard DiVenuto is investments in companies developing immunotherapies such as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, which serves to redirect T cells in fighting rapidly growing leukemia and lymphoma tumors.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a half-dozen immunotherapies spanning 19 types of cancer and a pair of tissue-agnostic conditions. These navigate the immune system’s delicate process of distinguishing “self” from “non-self.” In this process, the immune system identifies and attacks “non-self” invaders without provoking an autoimmune response against the the body's own tissues. In some cases, unfortunately, the immune system may also develop tolerance to tumor cells, as it comes to sees the cancer as “self.”

Also standing in the way of immune checkpoint therapy approaches are immune-related adverse events and unpredictable response rates. One way around this, both in terms of overcoming resistance and enhancing the immune response, is combination therapy that employs multiple lines of attack.

Researchers have also gone beyond approaches that stimulate immune responses through creating cell-based immunotherapies. These possess intrinsic anti-tumor properties that include therapeutic tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and (CAR) T therapy. Modified viruses are introduced that are able to infect and destroy cells within the tumor and resolve the persistent issue of cancer cells overcoming antiviral defenses.