Find and destroy

Dr. Benjamin Jin, a biologist working on immunotherapy for HPV+ cancers, works in the lab of Dr. Christian Hinrichs, an investigator at the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, February 7, 2018. Experimental trials at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center, U.S., are trying to partially replace patients’ immune systems with T-cells that would specifically attack cancers caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), a common sexually transmitted infection. A person’s T-cells will naturally try to kill off any invader, including cancer, but usually fall short because tumours can mutate, hide, or simply overpower the immune system. Immunotherapies that have seen widespread success, mainly target blood cancers which have a tumor antigen (like a flag or a signal) on the surface of the cells so it is easy for immune cells to find and target the harmful cells. But many common cancers lack this clear, surface signal. Picture shows Dr. Benjamin Jin, a biologist working on immunotherapy for HPV+ cancers, in the laboratory of Dr. Christian Hinrichs. The approach adopted by Dr. Hinrich, who is an investigator at the National Cancer Institute at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, focusses on HPV tumours because they contain viral antigens that the immune system can easily recognise.

Experimental trials at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center, U.S., are trying to partially replace patients’ immune systems with T-cells that would specifically attack cancers caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), a common sexually transmitted infection. A person’s T-cells will naturally try to kill off any invader, including cancer, but usually fall short because tumours can mutate, hide, or simply overpower the immune system. Immunotherapies that have seen widespread success, mainly target blood cancers which have a tumor antigen (like a flag or a signal) on the surface of the cells so it is easy for immune cells to find and target the harmful cells. But many common cancers lack this clear, surface signal. Picture shows Dr. Benjamin Jin, a biologist working on immunotherapy for HPV+ cancers, in the laboratory of Dr. Christian Hinrichs. The approach adopted by Dr. Hinrich, who is an investigator at the National Cancer Institute at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, focusses on HPV tumours because they contain viral antigens that the immune system can easily recognise.