Novel strategy isolates immune cells in the blood that recognize melanoma

On March 11, 2016, scientists in NCI’s Center for Cancer Research (CCR) have developed a novel strategy for identifying tumor-reactive and mutation-specific immune cells circulating in the blood of patients with melanoma.

Patients with metastatic melanoma have experienced dramatic tumor regressions in early clinical trials of adoptive cell transfer—a technique in which immune cells are collected from patients, expanded in the laboratory, and infused back into patients to attack the cancer. However, to date, these immune cells have been harvested only from solid tumor tissue, a process that requires invasive surgery and is not always possible. Read more here.