Researchers at EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute and the Medical University of Vienna have found evidence that B cells might play an important role in immunotherapy for melanoma.
Researchers at EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute and the Medical University of Vienna have found evidence that B cells might play an important role in immunotherapy for melanoma. Currently, immunotherapy is primarily focused on T cells, but the results suggest that B cells could also provide an interesting research avenue.
Immunotherapy - a game changer
Immunotherapy is a form of cancer treatment that uses the body’s own immune system to recognise and fight the disease. It comes in a variety of forms, including cancer vaccines, targeted antibodies or tumour-infecting viruses. Only some cancer patients currently benefit from this kind of therapy.
In the case of melanoma, which is a particularly aggressive form of skin cancer, established immunotherapies focus on T cells. T cells play an important role in controlling and shaping the immune system and they are able to directly kill cancer cells, while also recruiting other cells into the process.
Read more at: European Molecular Biology Laboratory - European Bioinformatics Institute
Using multiplex-immunostaining to characterise B cells. (Photo Credit: Christine Wagner)
