Two of the three research studies led by Jacqueline Douglass, M.D., Ph.D. candidate at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Emily Han-Chung Hsiue, M.D., Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins report on a precision medicine immunotherapy approach that specifically kills cancer cells by targeting mutant protein fragments presented as antigens on the cancer cell surface.
Although common across cancer types, p53 mutations have not been successfully targeted with drugs. Genetic alterations in tumor suppressor genes often resulted in their functional inactivation. Traditional drugs are aimed at inhibiting proteins. Inhibiting an already inactivated tumor suppressor gene protein in cancer cells, therefore, is not a feasible approach, says Hsiue, lead author on the