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ALL ABOUT IMMUNOTHERAPY
Chemotherapy: a chemical treatment that kills fast-growing cells within the body Radiation: highly concentrated doses of radiation meant to kill/ shrink tumors How is it di erent from other treatments? Unlike other forms of cancer treatment, immunotherapy does not directly target the tumor, but empowers the immune system.
The Allison Institute
What is it?
TREATMENT NO. 1: Immune checkpoint inhibitors
The Allison Institute is led by Dr. James Allison , who won the 2018 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his research into T-cell biology.
1 Checkpoint proteins naturally limit T-cells to prevent them from attacking healthy cells.
2 Immune checkpoint inhibitors block checkpoints allowing T-cells to more actively target cancer cells.
Immunotherapy is a broad term used to describe the process by which the immune system is boosted by external means to ght o infection or diseases, in this case cancer. While there are several types of immunotherapy treatment, the Allison Institute includes immune checkpoint inhibitors and T-cell activation.
Healthy cell
Cancer cell
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TREATMENT NO. 2: T-cell activation
Opened in March Located in the A MD Anderson campus with plans to move to B TMC3's life science campus in 2023
Chemotherapy is a drug treatment in which chemicals are introduced to kill fast-growing cells in the body. Because it is not targeted, chemotherapy can signi cantly a ect the rest of the body, according to the Mayo Clinic. “You can’t even hardly do anything,” said Speidel, who underwent che- motherapy for a year. “You’re so sick; you’re nauseated; you have blisters in your mouth. It’s terrible.” Radiation therapy is the use of high-powered beams of energy to directly kill cancer. “[Radiation] sometimes also targets normal tissues that are in the way, … and this can create side e ects that sometimes are self-limited and resolve after treatment but in some situations can be long standing and part of the survivorship experience,” Pisters said. Immunotherapy is not without side e ects, Speidel said. Checkpoint ther- apies have a 5-10% chance of causing side e ects, the most common being fatigue, according to MD Anderson. The types and severity of illness cre- ate a wide range in how much individ- uals are expected to pay toward care. A year after treatment, Speidel’s thy- roid shut down. However, Speidel said the downsides he has experienced with immunotherapy are nothing compared to the years of life he was given by undergoing experimental treatments all those years ago. “All I do now is take a little pink pill in the morning for my hormones, and that’s it,” he said. Targeted therapy: the use of drugs or other substances to attack cancer cells, similar to antibiotics Surgery: used in conjunction with other treatments after a tumor has become small enough to operate on and remove
1 A T-cell interacts with an antigen containing a cancer cell’s information.
2 The T-cell is injected
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T-cell: a type of white blood cell that targets speci c foreign material in the body Antigen: a toxin or foreign particle
into the patient.
HOLCOMBE BLVD.
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3 The T-cell instructs other T-cells in the body to attack cancer cells.
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$15M initially invested into research center
Plans to employ 125 faculty and sta by 2027
Cancer cell
SOURCES: MD ANDERSON, AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
New kind of treatment Cancer is the second leading cause of death for Texans. An estimated 46,353 people statewide reportedly died of cancer-related illness in 2021, 10,827 of them in the Greater Houston area, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Around 66% of Texans diagnosed with cancer survive ve years or more after diagnosis, according to a 2020 report by the Texas Cancer Registry. Preemptive action is the most impactful way to ght cancer, Pisters said, noting one-third of all cancer cases are preventable. Diminishing tobacco smoking limits cases of lung cancer; reducing ultraviolet light exposure limits
next ve months, he and 14 other can- cer patients received experimental treatment. Immunotherapy consists of a series of drug infusions that take sev- eral hours each appointment. The U.S. Food and Drug Administra- tion approved the rst immunother- apy drug in 2014 to treat melanoma. Although it was not easy, Speidel said he is still going strong seven years later—6 1/2 years longer than doctors gave him. “It’s been a heck of a journey,” said Speidel, a retired Missouri police o - cer, in a phone interview with Commu- nity Impact Newspaper . “All the trials and tribulations I’ve had as a police o cer, … this has been a battle. This has been something I’ve never experi- enced in my life.” Key to the research e ort in Houston is the opening of the new Allison Insti- tute in March, run by MD Anderson and located in its medical center cam- pus. The research hub is designed to further study new ways to treat cancer through the science of immunother- apy, said immunologist Dr. James Alli- son, for whom the institute is named. “Immunotherapy has transformed cancer care over the past decade, but unfortunately, not all patients bene- t equally. Our goal is to change that,” Allison said at the institute’s launch. Making a di erence Between September 2020 and August 2021, MD Anderson Cancer Center conducted 1,600 clinical trials
with 9,684 patients, according to its annual report. Allison—who won the 2018 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in conjunction with Dr. Tasuku Honjo for work in immunotherapy as a means to treat cancer—leads the new institute with Dr. Padmanee Sharma and Dr. Raghu Kalluri. The institute is expected to move to the TMC3 Collaborative Building upon its opening, with additional lab space to be added to their southern campus. Immunotherapy emerged as a via- ble means of treating cancer over the last two decades, said Dr. Peter Pis- ters, president of MD Anderson Cancer Center. “[Immunother-
THIS HAS BEEN A BATTLE. THIS HAS BEEN SOMETHING I’VE NEVER EXPERIENCED
apy] is a broad term that really involves a series of strategies, based in science, that are designed to har- ness the immune system or to super- charge the immune system in di erent ways to ght the cancer,” he said.
cases of mela- noma; and proper weight control, diet and exercise fend o a host of diseases, includ- ing cancer, he said. Historically, the three primary ways of treating cancer have been
IN MY LIFE. RON SPEIDEL, CANCER SURVIVOR
chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery, according to Pisters. Each method is used depending on the cir- cumstances, and multiple can be used in conjunction with each other. Traditional methods can have downsides that researchers said may be avoidable with the new treatment.
The hospital made an initial invest- ment of $15 million to the institute, and philanthropy will be an essential driver for progress moving forward, o cials said. The institute plans to recruit 125 faculty and sta members over the next ve years; that number is expected to double by 2032.
For more information, visit communityimpact.com .
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COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER • COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM
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