Ipilimumab, by contrast, is a more general immune booster. It blocks a protein called CTLA-4 that acts as a brake on T cells, the soldiers of the immune system. It is already also being tested against lung and prostate cancer.
Still, if a tumor does not elicit a strong immune response to begin with, then just keeping the response going longer would not help much, just as lifting one’s foot from the brake usually will not make a car go faster if the accelerator is not pressed. The accelerator needed is Interluekin-2 (IL-2.
IL-2 induces inflammation at tumor sites(Danger Signal) with three predominant secondary effects:
1)activation of antigen-presenting monocytes.
2) massive production of chemoattractants that may recruit other immune cells to the tumors.
3) activation of cytolytic mechanisms in monocytes (calgranulin, grancalcin) and NK cells NKG5, NK4.
The take away; systemic combinatorial therapy is one of the best ways to utilize the immune system to induce an immune response to Melanoma Cancer.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
~Charles Darwin~
Take Care,
Jimmy B
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