Engineering Immune Cells to Invade Tumors
Recent work highlights the potential of engineered T cells to better infiltrate tumor tissue.
The cancer specter
For a human body to function properly, over 30 trillion cells —yes, with a T — have to work together. But not every cell is equally cooperative.
When a cell decides to strike out on its own, to ignore the rules of division and growth, it becomes cancerous. These rogue cells are the second leading cause of death globally.
(For a fictional account of the life of a cancer cell, check out my free story ‘Divide and Conquer’.)
The roots of such a cell’s selfish decision can be traced back to mutations. Our DNA copying mechanism, though impressively accurate, is never 100% flawless. Each cell division comes with potential ‘errors’, or mutations. (Not all mutations are bad, though.)
Age is the major risk factor for most cancer types. Not only because we accrue mutations over time, but also because old blood might contain substances that help cancer spread once it has arisen.
Our gut microbiome influences cancer risk as well, and could even be leveraged to improve chemotherapy
