Immune cell therapy may provide alternatives to chemotherapy as a way of treating cancer. (Photo : REUTERS)
In what is viewed as a groundbreaking research by many, Novartis, a pioneer and global leader in Cancer Drugs is developing drugs that train our immune system to detect and fight malicious tumors.
The firm has developed over 22 cancer drugs and also has over 25 drugs under development according to Boston Globe.
Novartis hired a formed Harvard Medical School Professor Dr. Glenn Dranoff to lead the research team and will be posted at the Novartis research headquarters at Cambridge. Dranoff would be leading a team comprising of experts from 50 different companies, according to WTexas.
Mark Fishman, President of Novartis Institutes explains the significance of their research by stating that they are educating the immune system to identify cancer cells to be foreign in nature and fight them.
A recent drug developed by Novartis and UPenn is showing early promising results with atleast 10-15 percent of cases reacting positively. Novotis (please be careful with your spelling) looks to improve the results to a wide spectrum of cancer cells in the future.
Novartis have now set the ball in motion with all their competitors looking to capitalize on this field. Now several startups are specializing in the field of cancer research. Yet, it looks like Novartis will win the race for this immunotherapy, as observed by independent cancer researchers.
Dr. Dranoff is set to test results with a clinical trial group by signaling a sequence of actions in a cell known as STING - stimulator of interferon genes, which is aimed at improving the immune systems response in fighting against cancer.
In another study, T-Cells, which are white blood cells, are modified and injected back into the blood stream. These cells then tend to fight cancer.
In another study, researchers are looking to control the trigger that sets the immune systems to attack foreign bodies and not attack the healthy cells.
