CANCER patients and physicians are always looking for therapies free of side effects. But the standard treatments available to them -- chemotherapy and radiation -- typically work via a shotgun approach, indiscriminately killing all rapidly dividing cells whether they're cancerous or not. A long-held notion that the immune response might, in some practical manner, be harnessed to target cancer cells while sparing the rest is now being put to the test.
1 item tagged "Cancer"
L.A. Times - Health
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Cross hairs on a cancer
Posted: January 14th, 2008, 3:00am EST
Tags: Cancer [edit]
An experimental brain tumor vaccine coaxes the immune system to attack diseased cells only. Trials on other cancers may follow.
CANCER patients and physicians are always looking for therapies free of side effects. But the standard treatments available to them -- chemotherapy and radiation -- typically work via a shotgun approach, indiscriminately killing all rapidly dividing cells whether they're cancerous or not. A long-held notion that the immune response might, in some practical manner, be harnessed to target cancer cells while sparing the rest is now being put to the test.