Linda and her lifelong friend Pat
If you don’t know what BRCA1 and BRCA2 are by now you haven’t
been paying attention. The BRCA part is
short for breast cancer. BRCA1 and 2 are
genes that, when mutated, greatly increase a woman’s chance of getting breast
cancer. As it happens, the same
mutations increase susceptibility to ovarian cancer as well. But you knew all that.
The OVCA tie-in led me to the article cited below (bottom). It describes the work of Steven Rosenberg and
his lab, at the NCI. Rosenberg obviously
is an august personage in the cancer world; a book I reviewed recently
quotes an anonymous source, saying “you don’t criticize
Steve publically”. But, whatever, he is
famous, hyperactive, brilliant, successful, and intense. The world needs more Steve's
The article under discussion concerns an immunotherapy
technique that has produced some wonderful results. It is known as ACT (adaptive cell
transfer). Simplistically, ACT consist
of extracting TILs (tumor-infiltrating leucocytes) from the patient’s tumor,
then with the help of a drug called IL-2 (Interleukin-2) making zillions of
copies, later injecting them back into the patient. TILs consist of immune cells, T and B, that
recognize the malevolence of the tumor and attempt to kill it. Presumably they fail because they are somehow
out-gunned. The purpose of ACT seems to
be to provide massive reinforcements to the good guys.
(Always make allowance for my pre-school level of
sophistication in these matters.)
BTW, you may wonder just what is meant by
Interleukin-2. Well, here is its
description, taken from the glossary of the book cited above:
“A cytokine released by T helper cells that is necessary for
T-cell activation, proliferation, and maturation”. See the kind of stuff I put up with, just to
help you understand cancer?
A cytokine, by the way, is a family of “signaling molecules…involved
in immune cell signaling”
There. Did that help?
Informative blog... BRCA1 and 2 are genes that, when mutated, greatly increase a woman’s chance of getting breast cancer.
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