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Future of cancer treatments
"... The miracle, said Dr. Fadi Braiteh, the oncologist for both women, resulted from immunotherapy. Each woman’s immune system was unleashed — thanks to a new drug delivered intravenously — to attack her cancer cells.
Cancer cells’ ability to evade the immune system has frustrated researchers for decades. Why, researchers wondered, did white blood cells in the lab always kill cancer cells but not in the body? In recent years, scientists learned the answer: Cancerous tumors wrap themselves in an invisible molecular shield or camouflage. Researchers also learned some drugs could break through the shield, which could allow the immune system to attack cancerous cells.
Now cancer researchers and clinicians, excited about immunotherapy’s results, say they have a new weapon to fight cancer, which kills about 1,500 Americans a day, according to the American Cancer Society.
In December, as Rathbun and Rodgers underwent treatment they say had no discernible side effects, the editors of Science, the flagship journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, were so impressed by encouraging results from dozens of continuing, worldwide clinical trials that they selected cancer immunology as the “Breakthrough of the Year.” .... "
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Autre lien Des traitements contre le cancer plus ciblés 2010
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