Since the pioneering use of cord blood transplants by the late Hal Broxmeyer, PhD, Indiana University has been building on the use of cellular approaches to treat disease.
Working in partnership with leaders from private industry, researchers at the Brown Center for Immunotherapy are improving the application of cellular therapy for cancers and pioneering the use of this powerful technology for other diseases.
Seventy percent of breast cancer patients don’t respond to immunotherapy. Xinna Zhang, PhD, leads a collaborative research team that set out to answer key questions: How do breast cancer cells develop this immune evasion mechanism, and could targeting that action lead to improved immunotherapies?
Zhang and colleagues found that when breast cancer cells have an increased level of a protein called MAL2 on the cell surface, the cancer cells can evade immune attacks and continue to grow.
Researchers at the Brown Center are now exploring ways these findings could be used to develop and improve breast cancer therapies.
Nobody believed 20 years ago that immunotherapy would be central to curing cancer. We’re not there yet with breast cancer, but we’re on our way.
Kelvin Lee, MD — Director, IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center
For decades, the treatment for patients with stage 1 non-small cell lung cancer remained the same: surgery. But in the last year scientists reported that adding an immunotherapy drug called Keytruda produced positive results.
At the Brown Center, we’re interested in whether that therapy might benefit patients whose disease is so new it’s discovered by chance–a finding that pops up on a CT scan.
Greg Durm, MD, is leading a clinical trial for the therapy, one of several conducted within the prestigious Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium. The study—the only one taking place in the field—has the potential to change the standard of care.
Over the last decade, immunotherapy drugs have become the backbone of regimens that treat scores of solid tumors—and making it vital we understand the long-term ramifications for patients.
Shobha Shahani, MD, is studying how immunotherapy alters cognition. Along with Nasser Hanna, MD, Dr. Shahani is recruiting patients with advanced disease to undergo baseline cognitive testing and follow-ups.
Shahani’s work is a first step and findings will need to be validated with a larger follow-up study. With more concrete data, the potential next steps are intriguing. For example, Dr. Shahani could put patients with symptoms through more specific cognitive tests.
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Brown Center for Immunotherapy
980 W. Walnut St., Walther Hall
Indianapolis, IN 46202
Phone: (317) 278-6969
Email: iubrown@iu.edu
