The entirety of the VECR camp could be considered a highlight, but I most enjoyed the focus on clinical trials. I am currently studying glioblastoma immunotherapy with an anti-CD47 drug in the Cheshier lab at the University of Utah, and I found the lessons on clinical trials particularly interesting because anti-CD47 is still being tested on mice, but it is possibly on its way to clinical trials in glioblastoma treatment. I liked how the clinical trial lessons covered bioethical conceptsand the intense pre-testing required before a drug can get into a clinical trial. I was surprised to find that many drugs don’t get past the three phases of clinical trials which must prove the drug is safe, working, and doing the job. Dr. Eaton’s talk provided a wonderful look into a patient's experience in a clinical trial as costs have to be taken into account and the patient needs to be dedicated to the trial. Overall, I am thoroughly fascinated by the possibilities that come along with a clinical trial because the findings can help cure a multitude of people and so could anti-CD47.
At the beginning of June, a Fred Hutchinson’s news story called Immunotherapy trial in advanced bladder and other urinary tract cancers shows 'exciting' results caught my attention. The news story covered the works of Dr. Grivas who, in this particular study, was doing a clinical trial to find the best treatment for bladder and urinary tract cancers by using immunotherapy and chemotherapy. The type of immunotherapy used was an immune checkpoint inhibitor targeting PD-L1 on cancer cells so it would not deactivate immune cells or T-cells by their PD-1 antigen. The study found that patients who had little progression in chemotherapy after 4-6 cycles but received immunotherapy after (or a switch treatment) lived the longest. Ali Khaki (Dr. Griva’s partner) explained to me that the reason this occurs is not completely known but it may be because chemotherapy increases neo-antigen presentation and allows for a stronger immunotherapy attack on PD-L1, cancer cells. Using the immunotherapy after the chemotherapy is usually better because the chemotherapy can kill the immune cells in bladder cancer. This is exciting data because it could change the way doctors treat this cancer and encourage them to go for the switch treatment in bladder cancer. I personally found this study interesting because I am studying glioblastoma immunotherapy and have been looking at
combining immunotherapy, chemotherapy, and irradiation in different ways to see which is the best for glioblastoma treatment and using the immunotherapy after the chemotherapy could be a efficacious treatment.
In this image, the anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-1 antibodies are blocking receptors on both the tumor and the T-cells from being able to interact with each other which would have resulted in a deactivation of the T-cell and no immune response. But, because of the antibodies, this is inhibited and the T-cell receptor finds the correct antigen on the tumor cell and is able to destroy it. This type of immunotherapy was used in Dr. Griva’s experiment. (Based off of an image from Malini Guha in The Pharmaceutical Journal.)
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