New Treatment Boosts Cancer Vaccine

The first clinical trials of a new type of cancer treatment that releases the “brakes” on immune cells indicate that this approach enhances attacks on tumors while sparing the body's own tissue.

The results of the phase I clinical trials of cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 blockade therapy were published online on April 1, 2003, in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . The researchers involved in the study included James Allison , a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at the University of California, Berkeley, Glenn Dranoff, Steven Hodi and colleagues from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), Brigham and Women's Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

“The beauty of this treatment is that the antibodies by themselves are benign. After they clear from the system, immune regulation returns to normal.”
James P. Allison

"Well, the problem how strong our body is"