——文章来自美国Fred Huchinson癌症研究中心
免疫系统的主要作用就是搜寻、识别和消灭机体的异常细胞。其组成部分，如T细胞和抗体等，能在保证正常细胞不受损伤的情况下，选择性地杀灭癌细胞或被病毒感染的细胞。免疫系统攻击异常细胞的这一特性使我们既能治疗肿瘤，又能避免常规疗法所出现的毒性反应，给肿瘤治疗带来了新的希望。
通过一系列关键的科技改进，我们显著增强了机体运用其抗体、T细胞以及其它免疫系统成分抗击肿瘤的能力，这些改进包括：
l 逐渐发现和了解到免疫系统能够识别癌细胞中的分子异常，并能以此作为新目标进行治疗;
l 找准怎样有效设计和运用免疫系统蛋白(即抗体)作为药物和怎样运用患者自体T细胞治疗肿瘤的关键点;
l 进一步了解到为什么免疫疗法到目前为止并未如预期地被广泛或持续运用并克服这些障碍;
l 发现新的介质，能显著激活和扩大免疫反应，克服免疫反应的自然限制;
最近，美国的研究者们在肿瘤治疗上取得了一系列重要突破，开创了肿瘤治疗新纪元。这些研究包括：
l 发现了一种能产生长效、可再生的抗肿瘤细胞的方法，使T细胞疗法取得了长足进步;
l 识别出癌细胞产生的一种分子，该分子能帮助癌细胞逃避免疫系统的攻击，目前正在研究对抗该分子的方法;
l 发现患者如单独输注大量自体"辅助"T细胞，能长期缓解晚期黑色素瘤病程;
基于这些成果，运用免疫疗法治疗常见实体瘤，如乳腺癌、前列腺癌、结肠癌、肾癌、卵巢癌和皮肤癌等时，将会更有信心。
(合一康生物学术推广部编译，原文如下)
Breakthroughs of Immunotherapy in Cancer Treatment
- -Abstracted from Fred Huchinson Cancer Research Center
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The immune system has a remarkable ability to seek out, recognize and eliminate abnormal cells in the body. Immune-system components such as T cells and antibodies can selectively kill cancer cells or cells infected with a virus while leaving normal cells intact. The highly specific nature of this attack offers the tantalizing prospect of defeating cancer while avoiding the toxic side effects often associated with conventional cancer treatments.
The body’s ability to use antibodies, T cells and other components of the immune system to fight cancer has been remarkably strengthened by a number of evolving critical scientific and technological advances. These advances, gained through years of hard work, include:
l Increased discovery and understanding of molecular abnormalities found in cancer cells that can be recognized by the immune system and can serve as new targets for therapy;
l Key insights into how to effectively design and use immune-system proteins called antibodies as drugs and how to use a patient’s own T cells against his or her cancer;
l Enhanced understanding of some of the reasons why immunotherapies have not yet been as widely or consistently effective as hoped and the development of ways to overcome these barriers; and
l The discovery of novel agents that have astonishing capacities to activate and augment immune responses and to overcome natural limitations in immune responses.
Recently American researchers have made major breakthroughs which have opened the door to a new era in cancer treatment. Their researches include:
l Discovery of a way to produce a long-lasting, renewable source of cancer-fighting immune cells that promises to dramatically improve the success of T-cell therapy.
l Identification of a molecule produced by cancer cells that protects them from the immune system, and he is developing a way to neutralize this molecule.
l Discovery that infusing patients with large quantities of their own "helper" T cells alone can put advanced melanoma into long-term remission.
As a result of this success, cancer treatment is poised to apply immunotherapy to the more common solid tumors such as breast, prostate, colon, kidney, ovarian and skin cancer.
