24 POPULAR SCIENCE
Popular Science: How does
immunotherapy differ
from chemo and radiation?
Carl June: A reprogrammed
immune system could have a
lifelong antitumour effect. That
sets it apart from short-term
therapies, where you get
the effect only until the drugs
metabolise. Plus, the lessons we
learn from the immunotherapy
for one cancer
will apply to other cancers.
PS: The treatment you
developed, CAR (chimeric
antigen receptors) T cell
therapy, uses engineered
T cells (immune cells) to kill
tumours. It kills some
cancers, but not all. Why?
CJ: Often, the tumour cell
mutates, so the modified T cells
can’t find it anymore. We are
now in trials where we give
patients a cocktail of cells. Then
mathematically, it’s about
impossible for the tumour to
mutate in so many ways that
the engineered T cells can’t
keep up. Our end goal is to
pin a tumour into a corner,
where it can’t escape.
PS: Both CAR T and
IMLYGIC use viruses to
ignite an immune response. Are
there side effects?
CJ: es, but we are balancing Y
a sword. In CAR T, patients
who get high fevers [from the
treatment] are the ones who
end up doing best. The fever is
your immune response to the
virus, which is needed. The
patients who never get a fever
are the ones who don’t do well.
PS: The big question: Could this
lead to a cure for cancer?
CJ: In an ideal world, we will
have vaccines. For now, there’s
data showing that if we give
immunotherapy early, a single
treatment could bulk-reduce or
eliminate the tumour.
And then hopefully it’s
one and done.HEALTH
Our Bodies
Can Kill Cancer
CANCERCELLS SPREAD DUE TOTHEIR INSIDIOUS ABILITY TO
bypass the immune system. Tofight them, oncologists have
historically turned to toxic drugs that kill cancers’dividing
cells. But over the past decade, researchers have beenfiguring
outhow to trickthe immune system into attacking tumours.
In late 2015, the FDA approved Amgen’s IMLYGIC, a genetically
engineeredvirus that might trigger the immune system to
kill cancer. For now, the drug is onlyfor melanoma, but it’s a harbinger
ofa major shift in the cancerfight. University ofPennsylvania’s Carl
June, aleader in immunotherapyresearch,explainshow IMLYGIC,
and drugs like it, could change how cancer is treated.
CARL JUNE IMMUNOTHERAPY PIONEEREdited + Condensed by CLAIRE MALDARELLI Illustration by KYLE HILTON