Immune cells vs. metastasis: ‘It’s a numbers game’

New research published this week cracked an important code in the quest to prevent metastatic cancer. Co-led by Fred Hutch metastasis researcher Dr. Cyrus Ghajar and immunotherapy expert Dr. Stanley Riddell, professor (Hematology and Oncology), the research explains why the body’s natural immune system doesn’t eliminate disseminated tumor cells lying dormant in bone marrow or other sites and offers three potential T-cell immunotherapies that actually do.

Somewhere between 20% to 30% of early-stage breast cancer patients go on to develop metastasis, or stage 4 disease, after early-stage treatment (others, known as de novo metastatic patients, are diagnosed stage 4 from the start). And while metastatic cancer is treatable — sometimes giving patients many extra years — it is still not curable.

Ghajar, Riddell and other researchers are engineering a handful of immunological workarounds to basically smother tumor cells in their sleep.