Cancers are notorious for secreting chemicals that confuse the immune system and thwart biological defenses. To counter that effect, some cancer treatments try to neutralize the cancer’s chemical arsenal and boost a patient’s immune response, though attempts to do both at the same time are rarely successful. Now, researchers have developed a novel system to simultaneously deliver a sustained dose of both an immune-system booster and a chemical to counter the cancer’s secretions, resulting in a powerful therapy that, in mice, delayed tumor growth, sent tumors into remission, and dramatically increased survival rates. The researchers, led by Tarek Fahmy of Yale University, reported their findings in the journal Nature Materials (“Combination delivery of TGF-ß inhibitor and IL-2 by nanoscale liposomal polymeric gels enhances tumour immunotherapy”).
