It’s something we’ve been saying for years, and now leading researchers are joining in: a healthy immune system is the best way to beat cancer. In fact, the ‘war on cancer’ will never be won if we rely solely on chemotherapy, they say in a new research paper hailed as ‘a milestone of cancer research’.
A research team at the University Medical Centre Tubingen has demonstrated and proved that the immune system has the capability to drive tumours and cancerous cells into a state of permanent dormancy.
This means that immunotherapy-where the immune system is bolstered in order to fight the cancer-is an effective cancer therapy, and does so without destroying any cells, say the researchers, led by Prof Dr Martin Rocken. Instead, it causes senescence, or life-long dormancy, in cancerous cells, and stops the cancer spreading.
“It is very likely that we can’t win the ‘war on cancer’ by exclusive military means. Instead, it will be an important milestone to restore the bodies’ immune control of malignant tumours,” said Prof Rocken.
‘Military means’ include chemotherapy, the standard response to cancer, which destroys the immune system.
(Source: Nature, 2013; doi: 10.1038/nature11824).
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