Cancer that has spread to areas like the lungs can apply the brakes to a natural pathway that should recruit killer T cells directly to where it has metastasized, scientists report.
That newly found strategy used by tumors that have spread—and are consequently more deadly—may help explain why sometimes promising immunotherapies designed to help the immune system kill cancer don’t, says Kebin Liu, Ph.D., cancer immunologist in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Medical College of Georgia.
It also may mean an additional therapeutic maneuver is needed to stop some tumors, which often are diagnosed after they have spread, says Liu, corresponding author of the study in the journal Cancer Cell.
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