New paper co-authored by Szeto, Zhang in Nature Medicine

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 14:52:59 -0400

Research led by authors at MIT and co-authored by Dr. Greg Szeto and 1st year PhD student Michael Zhang was recently published in Nature Medicine and featured by multiple news outlets. In this work, both arms of the immune system (innate and adaptive) were simultaneously triggered in a 4-pronged coordinated attack. The result was eradication of large tumors in multiple mouse models, with survival >75% and protection from tumor recurrence. This study is a first demonstration that the endogenous immune response can successfully mount an attack against large immunosuppressive tumors.

It is also one of the first studies to identify a set of proteins that can predict tumor size after therapy. Ongoing studies in the Szeto lab are extending these findings into diverse tumor types and further refining their predictive accuracy to one day predict therapeutic responses in patients.

Image: T cells — immune cells that are targeted to find and destroy a particular antigen — are key to the adaptive immune response. In this image, the top row shows few T cells in untreated mice, while the bottom rows show many T cells produced after immunotherapy treatment. Courtesy of the researchers

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Nature Medicine: Eradication of large established tumors in mice by combination immunotherapy that engages innate and adaptive immune responses

MIT News: Fighting cancer with the power of immunity

GEN: Large Tumors Destroyed by Innate/Adaptive Immunotherapy Combo

FierceBiotech: Targeting both immune system branches could be key for cancer immunotherapy