New findings may spark cancer treatment

From the Channel 4

New cancer treatments could emerge from a key discovery about the way tumours escape the immune system, scientists have said.

A mechanism which normally stops the body defences over-reacting allows cancer cells to fall under the immune system radar. As a result, tumours are left alone and allowed to proliferate.

Understanding the process may lead to more effective cancer therapies, said the scientists from King's College London.

Under normal circumstances the immune system induces inflammation around a dangerous invader or injury which tells the body there is a problem.

Regulatory T cells, a type of white blood cell, have the job of deciding if the emergency is warranted. If it is not, they cause other cells called macrophages to dampen down the inflammatory response.

The King's College team found that in some cancers, regulatory T cells wrongly perceive the threat to be harmless and send out a "false alarm" signal to the macrophages.

Research leader Dr Leonie Taams said: "Neutralising an inflammatory response in this scenario can cause the tumour to fall under the radar of the body's immune system and 'trick' it into believing that there is no problem.

"We hope to be able to use this new knowledge about the relationship between regulatory T cells and macrophages to find more effective treatments for tumours.

"Interestingly, we also hope to use the same knowledge to achieve the opposite result and block chronic inflammation such as that which occurs in rheumatoid arthritis."

The research is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.