[HN Gopher] Hitchhiking cancer vaccine makes progress in the clinic
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       Hitchhiking cancer vaccine makes progress in the clinic
        
       Author : ulrischa
       Score  : 35 points
       Date   : 2024-02-17 20:39 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (news.mit.edu)
 (TXT) w3m dump (news.mit.edu)
        
       | pazimzadeh wrote:
       | This sounds really promising. Drug delivery seems like the
       | biggest way to improve existing treatment modalities (improve
       | effectiveness, reduce side effects, etc).
       | 
       | I hope that if this works well, then they can use the same
       | carrier molecule to deliver vaccines specific to other tumor
       | antigens than KRAS? Wouldn't the approach of targeting lymph
       | nodes also improve non-cancer vaccines too, or other
       | immunotherapies such as immunosuppression in transplant patients
       | which would permit a lower dose?
       | 
       | One thing I still don't understand though is why immune based
       | therapies in cancer patients are given after chemotherapy, which
       | destroys the immune system.
       | 
       | I understand that once tumors get to a certain size it's
       | dangerous not to throw our most effective option at them, but it
       | seems like earlier screening + earlier immunotherapy would work
       | better for the general population, and chemo could be used as a
       | last resort. After all you typically don't wait until someone has
       | a disease to give them a vaccine.
       | 
       | Does anyone know the state of using immunotherapies as first line
       | treatment (even in cancers where chemo "works well" in initial
       | treatment?
        
         | Faaak wrote:
         | Totally! Some days ago FDA approved a new chemotherapy for PDAC
         | which increases survival time from 9 months to... 11months.
         | 
         | Compared to immunotherapy, chemo really looks like an ancient
         | technology. Hope immuno gets even better.
        
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