New Immunotherapy Increases Drug’s Success in Melanoma, Lung Cancer

Source: Pharmacy Times, October 2019

Researchers at Mount Sinai are developing a promising new immunotherapy for treatment-resistant non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which combined with stem cell transplantation, increased the success in treating melanoma and lung cancer.

The immunotherapy, a checkpoint blockade, improved the ability of T cells to fight cancer by removing the “cloaking effect” that tumors use to hide from them, according to a press release. Checkpoint blockade therapy is typically effective in several tumor types, but generally ineffective in non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

The study showed that when the immunotherapy is combined with a stem cell transplant, which the researchers call “immunotransplant," the process expedites T cells to increase the cancer-killing immune response, allowing the treatment to be effective against non-Hodgkin lymphoma and more successful in melanoma and lung cancer.