The power of immunity
Part of the reason patients succumb to multiple myeloma is because their immune systems — which normally detect and kill diseased cells — lose their ability to determine that myeloma cells are diseased. At the Lipper and Layzer Infusion centers, investigators are collaborating with researchers throughout Dana-Farber on ways to overcome this problem. Their advances have led to new treatments now being tested in patients.
The "United Nations against myeloma." Back row (from left), Boris Lin, M.D., Ph.D.; Nicholas Mitsiades, M.D.; Yu-Tzu Tai, Ph.D.; Constantine Mitsiades, M.D.; Suzanne Lentzsch, M.D.; Masaharu Akiyama, M.D., Ph.D.; Deepak Gupta, M.D.; Faith E. Davies, M.D. Front row (from left), Steven Treon, M.D., Ph.D.; Klaus Podor, M.D.; Dharminder Chauhan, Ph.D.; Teru Hideshima, M.D., Ph.D.; and Richard LeBlanc, M.D.
One of the treatments involves a procedure called "adoptive immunotherapy" — a way of adding to the immunological punch of traditional bone marrow transplants. Doctors including Edwin Alyea, M.D., Jerome Ritz, M.D., and Robert Soiffer, M.D., first perform a bone marrow or stem cell transplant from a compatible donor. The transplant regenerates patients' blood and immune systems and reinvigorates their bodies' ability to fight myeloma. To further strengthen that response, doctors then give patients an infusion of donor lymphocytes — cells that reinforce the immune system. This is the treatment Joseph Schwarz received most recently.
Clinical trials are also under way to test novel kinds of vaccines against myeloma. One trial, being conducted by John Gribben, M.D., of Dana-Farber's Department of Adult Oncology, seeks to "decamouflage" myeloma cells so they can be detected and attacked by the immune system.
"Anything that offers a potential for a cure or for extending my life is being tested at Dana-Farber."
— Kathy Giusti, director, Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation
Researchers have found that if a protein called CD40 on the surface of myeloma cells is activated, the cells become "visible" — and vulnerable — to the immune system. In the technique being tested by Gribben and his colleagues, these visible myeloma cells are used in a vaccine. The goal is to trigger an immune response against myeloma cells throughout the marrow.
Another approach to a vaccine is being tested by David Avigan, M.D., Donald Kufe, M.D., and Jianlin Gong, M.D., of Adult Oncology. As in the CD40 technique, doctors remove some of patients' diseased marrow, but in this case, they fuse the myeloma cells to dendritic cells, whose job is to alert the rest of the immune system to the presence of foreign or diseased cells. The fused cells are used as a vaccine, potentially sparking a powerful immune attack on myeloma cells everywhere in the body.
- Next: The human touch
- Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
