Dr Simon Crabb
SOUTHAMPTON is to help spearhead an international trial which will look to help improve the lives of bladder cancer patients. The first UK patients have now been recruited to take part in tests looking at whether an immunotherapy treatment could improve the long-term outcomes following radiotherapy for those suffering from the disease. Named the BL-13 trial, it is being led by Dr Simon Crabb at the CRUK Southampton Clinical Trials Unit, based within the University of Southampton’s Centre for Cancer Immunology. Around 10,000 people are diagnosed with bladder cancer each year in the UK. If the cancer has invaded the muscle wall of the bladder, patients require treatment with chemotherapy followed by either a course of radiotherapy or a cystectomy (surgery to remove the bladder), a procedure which may impact on their quality of life.
Scientists gain new insight into how the immune system can be better used to destroy cancer cells
Scientists at the University of Southampton s Centre for Cancer Immunology have gained new insight into how the immune system can be better used to find and kill cancer cells.
Working with BioInvent International, a team led by Professor Mark Cragg and Dr Jane Willoughby from the Antibody and Vaccine Group, based at the Centre, have shown that antibodies, designed to target the molecule OX40, give a more active immune response when they bind closer to the cell membrane and can be modified to attack cancer in different ways.
Credit: NIAID
Scientists at the University of Southampton s Centre for Cancer Immunology have gained new insight into how the immune system can be better used to find and kill cancer cells.
Working with BioInvent International, a team led by Professor Mark Cragg and Dr Jane Willoughby from the Antibody and Vaccine Group, based at the Centre, have shown that antibodies, designed to target the molecule OX40, give a more active immune response when they bind closer to the cell membrane and can be modified to attack cancer in different ways.
OX40 is a co-receptor that helps to stimulate the production of helper and killer T-cells during an immune response. One of the ways cancer avoids detection is by suppressing immune responses to stop functional tumour specific T-cells from being produced.