 Dr. Andrew Raubitschek |
Immunotherapy seeks to reprogram the body’s powerful immune response system to attack cancer cells in the same way it attacks the common cold.
This research holds great promise in reducing the severe side effects of traditional cancer treatment.
The objective of this research is to eliminate or reduce the need for chemotherapy and/or radiation – the two most common cancer treatments – both of which are extremely harsh and devastating to patients.
 Dr. Stephen J. Forman |
T-Cell therapy is one of the most exciting new treatments being developed at City of Hope.
Through this research, T-Cells – immune system cells responsible for defending against disease – are taken from the patient and reprogrammed through genetic engineering to target the patient’s cancer.
When reintroduced into the patient’s body, these T-Cells are capable of killing tumor cells while leaving normal cells unharmed.
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 Dr. Michael Kalos
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The Clinical Immunobiology Correlative Studies Laboratory (CICSL) is tasked with the development and application of very precise, state-of-the-art studies to examine the effects of cancer immunotherapies in patients.
While the patient is undergoing the immunotherapy infusion process, this laboratory collects samples, analyses the samples and forwards the results of the analysis to the doctors performing the immunotherapy infusions.
Understanding how treatment has impacted a patient’s immune system is of the utmost importance since all too often the expected and/or desired outcome from early stage cancer therapy trials (elimination of the cancer) is not obtained.
Measuring the effect of therapies on the patient’s immune system is defined as “immune monitoring” and the studies performed are called “immune correlative studies.”
These studies are designed to identify the correlation between success of treatment (or lack thereof) and the effect the treatment has had on the patient's immune system.
