Targeting cancer without destroying healthy T-cells

A unique approach to targeting the abnormal T-cells that cause T-cell lymphomas could offer hope to patients with the aggressive and difficult-to-treat family of cancers, finds a study involving researchers from Cardiff University. The team of researchers, working with biopharmaceutical company Autolus Ltd, have discovered a method of targeting the cancer without destroying healthy T-cells, essential to the immune system. Lymphomas arise when immune cells, called lymphocytes, that protect us against germs, become cancerous. There are two types of lymphocytes: B-cells and T-cells. Recent developments, including immunotherapies, have transformed the once fatal diagnosis of B-cell lymphoma into a curable condition but there remains a critical need for new therapeutic approaches to the rarer, but often more aggressive, T-cell lymphoma. A key challenge of treating these cancers has been to identify a way of eliminating the abnormal T-cells whilst sparing the healthy ones that play an essential role in providing protection against infections. T-cells recognize and remove germs using a molecule on their surface called the T-cell receptor.