
Duke Team Finds Missing Immune Cells That Could Fight Lethal Brain Tumors - daegloe
https://corporate.dukehealth.org/news-listing/duke-team-finds-missing-immune-cells-could-fight-lethal-brain-tumors
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ArtWomb
The mechanism by which a tumor suppresses and evades immune response is
tremendously complex. And while directly "locking" helper cells in bone marrow
may seem a most pernicious defense. It isn't the only one.

For immunotherapy to fulfill its promise. Every type of response for every
category of tumor cell must be decoded. As well as every effective ligand to
boost immune cell strategy.

Currently there are only a handful of therapies approved globally. Among
hundreds of ongoing trials that need patients to sign up.

The inefficiency in the marketplace landscape then is a disconnect. Between
patients for whom there may be a potential cure. And researchers who lack the
reach to connect with them.

There is probably potential for a startup here that connects the two ;)

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ekianjo
The problem is that clinical trials are pretty much not advertized to the
public and rely on very inefficient doctor networks to find patients. It like
the middle ages.

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1_over_n
Also, consider that a clinical trials for Cancer may not be a first line
therapy or ideal choice - it's often something that people who are desperate
and at an advanced stage consider due to their options running out.

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ekianjo
Yes, but even late stage patients don't have too many options because clinical
trials are usually designed to follow very specific algorithms of treatments
and reject patients who don't exactly fit in. So there is actually a lot of
friction in the current system, and the fact that clinical trials are
typically expensive for companies to run just exacerbates things.

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rfinney
Nature Medicine paper here :
[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-018-0135-2](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-018-0135-2)

"Sequestration of T cells in bone marrow is therefore a tumor-adaptive mode of
T cell dysfunction, whose reversal may constitute a promising
immunotherapeutic adjunct."

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yhoneycomb
(from the second image)

"Duke scientists discovered an abundance of missing T-cells trapped within the
bone marrow."

"an abundance of missing"

I know everyone makes mistakes, but I can't even fathom writing this sentence
and thinking it sounded good

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war1025
I guess it sounds alright to me? I didn't read the article, so I might be
missing the context, but it sounds like there were fewer T-cells than they
thought there should be, and they found that a bunch of them were in the bone
marrow when they didn't expect it.

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yhoneycomb
Oh... yeah that makes sense now. Very confusing wording though. I thought that
they were ONLY saying "there were a lot less T-cells in the bone marrow."

I would have said: "Increased T-cells were found trapped in the bone marrow, a
possible explanation for the decreased T-cells in the brain."

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tynpeddler
Is it possible that glioblastoma cancer is a result of two different
dysfunctions? The glioblastoma tumor in the brain, and an unrelated
sequestration of T cells in the bone marrow?

The abstract states that the loss of S1P1 is tumor imposed, but not having
access to the paper, I don't know what they mean by that.

