6 November 2013
The Institute of Cancer Research, London, responds to the National Cancer Research Institute news story "Redirecting our immune cells to help fight children's cancer".
Dr Louis Chesler, Head of the Paediatric Solid Tumour Biology and Therapeutics team at The Institute of Cancer Research, said:
“Neuroblastoma is one of the most common solid tumours of children and is still very difficult to cure in high-risk form.
“The introduction of immune therapy, using an antibody targeted to GD2, a molecule present on the surface of neuroblastoma tumour cells, is among few interventions to have produced a measurable increase in long-term survival of patients with the high-risk form of this disease.
“Advanced immunotherapeutic approaches, involving the use of engineered antigen receptors and T or NKT cells, represent a significant step forward in harnessing the potential of immune therapy for neuroblastoma.
“There are still practical issues relating to the efficient generation of these therapeutics for clinical use, but no doubt these will be rapidly dealt with as these approaches become effective for other cancers. The use of these techniques should now be addressed through pilot studies in the early-phase clinical setting.”
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