I Hate Dialysis Message Board

Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: News Articles => Topic started by: MooseMom on February 11, 2020, 08:42:36 AM

Title: Immunotherapy for cancer in renal transplant patients
Post by: MooseMom on February 11, 2020, 08:42:36 AM

I've been reading quite a bit in the past several years about the idea and the practice of immunotherapy in the treatment of various cancers.  Immunotherapy is the use of one's own immune system in the fight against malignancy.

In the current edition of Time magazine, a Nobel Prize winning immunologist from MD Anderson in Houston, Dr. James Allison, was interviewed.  He is best known for this :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkpoint_inhibitor

I have been wondering for a long time how immunotherapy would work in transplant patients, seeing as we are already "immunocompromised".  We all know that tx patients have a great risk for certain cancers, so I wondered if this avenue of treatment might be closed to us.  But then I found this:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170118103829.htm

I just thuoght all of this was interesting and thought I'd share it with you all.

Title: Re: Immunotherapy for cancer in renal transplant patients
Post by: SooMK on February 15, 2020, 08:27:14 AM

Very interesting!

Title: Re: Immunotherapy for cancer in renal transplant patients
Post by: cassandra on February 15, 2020, 10:41:08 AM

Very interesting indeed, you would think it could be poss to determine which part of the immune system is responsible for a persons rejection of a transplanted organ, and target that part with checkpoint inhibitors too