Top 10 Medical Innovations according to the Cleveland Clinic (6)
Specialists of the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, have compiled another annual list of innovations that, in their opinion, will have the greatest impact on the healthcare system in the coming 2015.
No. 6. Immune checkpoint inhibitors
The immune system is a complex of organs, cells and molecules that constantly protect the body from dangerous infections and diseases.
It reacts to antigens or foreign agents by launching a well-coordinated process that involves cells of several types circulating throughout the body in search of abnormally altered cells or pathogens of infectious diseases.
Oncological diseases, which annually claim about eight million lives, are very difficult to treat. In addition to directly affecting malignant cells, researchers are actively engaged in an active search for methods that would make the patient's own immune system more effectively search for and destroy tumor cells, as well as memorize their antigenic profile – that is, to do with them the same way it does with infectious agents.
For more than a hundred years ago, scientists have suggested that the immune system is able to effectively fight certain types of cancer. However, research in this area has not received much development, and the main components of therapy in oncology have become surgical removal of the tumor, as well as radio and chemotherapy.
However, not so long ago, interest in using the body's own immune system in the fight against cancer was revived thanks to the impressive success of drugs known as immune checkpoint inhibitors. These immunomodulators designed for intravenous administration effectively block the activity of proteins acting as limiters that keep immune cells from attacking malignant neoplasms. Blocking these proteins "releases" immune cells, mainly killer T-lymphocytes, which are able to destroy cancer cells.
In a recent clinical study, a third of patients with late-stage skin cancer using a combination of checkpoint inhibitors acting on two surface T–lymphocyte receptors - CTLA-4 and PD–1 - had an 80% reduction in tumor size. The administration of the drugs was accompanied by rapid mobilization of T-lymphocytes, which ensured an unprecedented long-term survival of patients with melanoma. At the same time, the combination of drugs had a much more pronounced effect than each of the drugs separately.
Currently, researchers are exploring the possibilities of combining immune checkpoint inhibitors with chemo and radiotherapy in the treatment of lung, stomach, pancreatic, kidney and breast cancers. There is an opinion that with the direct destruction of the tumor using traditional approaches, the additional use of immune checkpoint inhibitors will ensure the appearance of specialized T-lymphocytes capable of recognizing and destroying malignant cells that have survived after the completion of the main therapy.
To date, the FDA has already approved two drugs of this class for the treatment of metastatic melanoma. At the same time, researchers are getting more and more data indicating that immune checkpoint inhibitors can be effective against various types of malignant neoplasms, including lung, kidney, bladder, ovarian, and head and neck cancers. Three pharmaceutical companies expect their drugs to receive FDA approval next year, while several more drugs are in the final stages of clinical trials.
Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of the Cleveland Clinic: Top 10 Innovations for 2015.
11.12.2014