"For more than a century scientists have been attempting to harness the immune system to fight cancer  trying to get the antibodies and cells that protect us from bacteria and viruses to kill diseased cells.  Every once in a while a tantalizing success occurred. But time and again the treatment could not be repeated. The case begins with a drug called ipilimumab approved in  for advanced melanoma treatment. The drug turns the immune system into a cancerkiller bringing some patients back from the brink of death. Melanoma is one of the deadliest forms of skin cancer striking  Americans and killing more than  every year. Because there are few treatments for advanced melanoma the new drug was greeted with excitement by doctors and patients. But ipilimumab sold under the brand named Yervoy by Bristol Myers Squibb works in only  to  percent of patients. Until now no one knew why. Valerie Esposito a yearold mother of three was taking ipilimumab for advanced melanoma and it wasnt working very well. The cancer was spreading through her body.  One huge tumor in fact was pressing on her spine. To relieve the pressure her doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York radiated the lump. Within weeks other tumors throughout her body started shrinking dramatically. This has occurred before in cancer immunology. But this time oncologist Dr. Jedd Wolchok and his team of melanoma specialists at Sloan Kettering think they have figured out at the molecular level exactly how that shot of radiation altered her immune system to allow the drug to kill far more cancer cells. It created pieces of tumors  proteins called antigens  that sparked specific changes in how antibodies and diseasefighting white cells recognized the cancer cells as foreign and thus destroyed them.  Already the researchers are planning a nationwide clinical trial to determine if the findings can allow the drug to help many more patients with advanced melanoma. They also believe the same approach could work for kidney lung and other cancers. Source http"