New immunotherapy method turns activated specifically in tumor

Un médicament commutable pour une immunothérapie plus sûre © 2021 EPFL - Scientists have developed a chemical method for targeting the effects of cancer-fighting immunotherapy drugs only to the tumor tissue, making the drugs less toxic to the rest of the human body. Immunotherapy drugs are promising new weapons in the fight against cancer, but they are so strong that they can be toxic to the rest of the human body. The basic idea behind immunotherapy drugs is simple. Doctors inject special kinds of drugs, especially proteins such as antibodies and cytokines prepared or modified in a lab, into a patient, where they activate the patient's immune cells -T-cells, NK cells, and so on - and help these cells fight the tumor. In short, immunotherapy drugs work like a powerful cocktail that boosts a patient's own immune system. "After being prescribed by a doctor, immunotherapy drugs are administered intravenously," says Li Tang, head of the Laboratory of Biomaterials for Immunoengineering at EPFL's School of Engineering. "Once inside the body, the drugs spread all over - not just where the tumor or any metastases are located.