Cancer cells can often successfully hide from the immune system. Researchers have therefore been trying for years to use the body's own defenses specifically against tumors. A team from Dresden has now tested a new active substance that guides immune cells directly to cancer cells. Initial results in seriously ill patients give hope that this approach could also help when other treatments are no longer effective.
The team from the National Center for Tumor Diseases Dresden (NCT/UCC) at the Carl Gustav Carus University Hospital and the Faculty of Medicine at TU Dresden has now presented the results at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the world's most important cancer congress. The data was simultaneously published in the journal "Nature Medicine".
The focus is on a new active substance called IMA401. The study was a first test on humans. Such early studies are primarily intended to show whether a new active substance is safe and in what dosage it can be used. Whether IMA401 will later become part of regular cancer treatment remains to be seen in larger studies.
