Immunology

To monitor cancer therapy, researchers tag CAR T cells with imaging markers

With CAR T cell therapy, a patient’s own immune cells are genetically modified and inserted back into the body to find and kill cancer. Now scientists have now discovered a new way to track CAR T cells in the body.

Researchers unravel the early makings of an exhausted T cell

Knowing which T cells will lose the battle against cancer earlier could inform treatments and the development of new immunotherapies.

computer rendering of microscopic images of DNA helix on the left, a tumor on the right.

Algorithm personalizes which cancer mutations are best targets for immunotherapy

A new model developed by researchers in the Abramson Cancer Center hand-picks cancer cells to target for more effective, customized cancer vaccines.

CAR T cell therapy may be harnessed to treat heart disease

Penn Med researchers used genetically modified T cells to improve heart function in an animal model after cardiac injury, a step forward in expanding the use of the technology to treating, or even reversing, heart failure.

Balance of ‘stop’ and ‘go’ signaling could be key to cancer immunotherapy

A Penn study shows potential of the interferon pathway as a biomarker to help predict which patients are likely to respond to immunotherapies.

edlerly patient lying in hospital bed with door open and sunlight coming through the windows.

Elderly patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma benefit from targeted therapies

A Penn study of Medicare patients who are often underrepresented in medical trials finds overall survival benefits from treatment with targeted therapies.

How to reinvigorate exhausted immune cells to stop cancer

A Penn study has identified a protein called TOX that regulates exhausted T-cells, and could be a key to new immunotherapies.

For melanoma patients, one dose of immunotherapy before surgery can lead to remission

An Abramson Cancer Center study finds that with a single dose of a PD-1 inhibitor, immune responses can peak in just one week.

Immune profiling: A new opportunity for drug development

Immunologists, oncologists, and infectious disease specialists are thinking about the immune system in a new way based on its integral and ubiquitous ties to human health, amassing data on its role in gastroenterology, neurology, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic disease.

The ‘immunorevolution’ has begun

Penn Medicine experts gathered for a panel discussion about their innovative new approach to harness the body’s own immune system to fight cancer.

Filters