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SUMMARY:Harnessing cancer patients’ own immune system to control disease
 . - Professor Ann Ager\, Professor of Cellular Immunity and Immunotherapy\
 , Cardiff University
DTSTART:20220530T183000Z
DTEND:20220530T200000Z
UID:TALK172862@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:John Cook
DESCRIPTION:Cancer immunotherapy is a way of treating cancers by harnessin
 g the patient’s own immune system to kill cancer cells. One type of canc
 er immunotherapy called chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy inv
 olves taking patients’ T-cells\, retargeting them to molecules on cancer
  cells\, stimulating cell division to generate large numbers and putting t
 hem back into the patient. For leukemias and lymphomas\, CAR-T therapy tar
 geting a molecule called CD19 represents the most promising breakthrough i
 n the past decade with 40 - 50% of lymphoma patients with a poor prognosis
  having a complete and long-lasting response. However\, the response rate 
 of CD19-CAR-T therapy in other blood cancers with a poor prognosis can be 
 as low as 25%. In solid cancers such as pancreatic cancer\, CAR-T response
  rates are as low as 17%.\n\nOur work studying how T cells detect and infi
 ltrate cancers using preclinical models has shown that L-selectin expressi
 on by cancer specific T-cells is essential to restrict the growth of solid
  and disseminated cancers. These studies have revealed a strategy for incr
 easing the efficacy of T cells by enhancing expression of L-selectin. We a
 re currently testing whether L-selectin can be used to modify CAR-T cells 
 to broaden their use in the clinic.
LOCATION:Location: Wolfson Lecture Theatre\, Churchill College\, and Zoom
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