Checkpoint Inhibitors: Taking the Brakes Off the Immune System

one of the most exciting approaches to cancer immunotherapy involves releasing the natural breaks that keep the immune system in check this approach called checkpoint blockade takes advantage of the fact that the immune system already knows how to fight cancer it just needs a little help the immune system's main cancer fighters are called T cells T cells have receptors on their surface that do different things some act like a gas pedal on a car telling the T cell to go others act like a brake telling the cell to stop drugs called checkpoint inhibitors release the brakes allowing the immune system to step on the gas and fight the cancer many cancers have learned to hijack these same immune brakes to avoid destruction they make a molecule that engages the breaks checkpoint inhibitors block this interaction as well robbing cancer of an important defense several checkpoint inhibitors are currently FDA approved for the treatment of melanoma and lung cancer the drug euro voi blocks a checkpoint called ctla4 two other drugs opdivo and katroo de block a checkpoint called pd-1 many cancers respond to checkpoint inhibitors and the future looks very bright for this important class of immunotherapies created by the Cancer Research Institute the leader in immunotherapy to learn more about immunotherapy and about clinical trials visit our community for patients and caregivers at the answer to cancer org you

Channel: Cancer Research Institute

Views: 109,378

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Keywords: Immune System (Literature Subject), Immunology (Field Of Study), cancer, checkpoint inhibitors, Melanoma (Disease Or Medical Condition), ipilimumab, pembrolizumab, nivolumab, opdivo, keytruda, yervoy, Lung Cancer (Disease Or Medical Condition), Skin Cancer (Disease Or Medical Condition), Medicine (Field Of Study), Health, cancer breakthrough, cancer treatment, cure, treatment

Id: v9NBUeU3PG0

Length: 1min 50sec (110 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 19 2015