This is a big question for those in the field of cancer immunotherapy, treatment based upon the concept of adjusting the immune system to reject and destroy tumors.

The National Cancer Institute along with a company called NewLink Genetics are looking to get FDA approval to start clinical trials of a drug that restricts a natural mechanism for immune suppression.

This enzyme named IDO, has been shown to help the fetus avoid rejection by the mother's immune system. This discovery led scientists to suspect and later prove that tumors express IDO.

Will suppressing IDO in humans help the immune system to seek out and kill cancer cells? This is what these scientists want to find out.

Doctor Mellor, a pediatric oncologist, says "What (cancers) do, we think, is make a protective cocoon so the immune system does not attack the tumor, so that gives you the therapeutic opportunity. If you stop IDO from blocking the response, you should allow the response, so now the specificity of the immune system is brought to bear directly on tumor cells"

Interesting stuff!

A clinical trial in now enrolling patients to evaluate the effectiveness of Rituxan (rituximab) plus the addition of Leukine (sargramostim) for patients with follicular B-cell lymphoma that has recurred. This type of lymphoma is categorized as a low-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) that comprises 30 percent of all cases.

Rituxan is commonly used in the treatment of various forms of NHL. Researchers are continuing to evaluate ways to improve the anti-cancer responses to Rituxan. One such drug called Leukine is a growth factor which can stimulate the immune system to help fight disease. Leukine is also thought to have properties that improve Rituxan's cancer-killing effects based on previous clinical trials.

One group of patients in the study will be treated with Leukine plus Rituxan, and the other group will be treated with Rituxan alone. Patients will be assessed according to how their cancer responds to treatment.

For more information on enrollment for this clinical trial, go to

www.eCancerTrials.com

In a clinical trial conducted at the University of Nottingham, scientists gave a vaccine to 67 colorectal cancer patients before and after surgery to remove the cancerous tumors. The British researchers say they have developed a vaccine that stimulates the immune system to fight colorectal cancer cells.

Vaccine trials are not new in the search for effective cancer treatments but many times they are given as a last resort and are not effective. The vaccine is named 105AD7. The antibody in the vaccine was cloned from a patient who survived seven years despite liver metastasis from colorectal cancer. Lindy Durrant, study senior author and professor of cancer immunotherapy said "This is very unusual, as most patients die within a year of getting liver metastasis. I thought if this antibody had helped this patient, if we could clone it, it might help others".

The researchers reported in the current issue of Clinical Cancer Research that the vaccine helped stimulate immune cell production in up to seventy percent of the patients studied.

Lindy Durrant also states that "This is the first vaccine shown to stimulate TNF-alfpha -- an immune system protein that is very effective at killing cancer cells"