A Publication for Baylor Scott & White Health ’ s Oncology Program
A Record of Accomplishments
Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas has a rich history of immune therapy innovation , especially in the area of dendritic cell research , as shown in the seminal work of the team at BIIR . Their novel treatments for colleague and mentor , Ralph M . Steinman , MD , helped him fight his pancreatic cancer for 4½ years , far beyond the median survival for this disease .
It was the late Dr . Steinman who coined the term “ dendritic cells ” in 1973 . In 2011 , Dr . Steinman was awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity . BIIR ’ s oncology vaccine research facility is named after him : the Ralph M . Steinman Center for Cancer Vaccines at BIIR in Dallas .
NATIONAL ‘ CANCER MOONSHOT ’
42 / BUMC and BIIR are Creating New
16 / Clinical Trials Using CAR T-Cells Start to Treat Blood Cancers ALL and MCL
11 / “ Pancvax ” Clinical Trial is First Study of Dendritic
Cell Vaccine in Pancreatic Cancer Patients
Ultimately , the aim of the ‘ moonshot ’ is to win the war on cancer — to get to a point in the very near future when we are managing cancer the same way we might manage any chronic disease . . . When we can finally stop the toxic therapies , such as chemotherapy and radiation that decimate the immune system , and instead , rally the full power of the immune system and the body ’ s natural killer cells to fight off the cancer the way they were designed to do , the patient is not only surviving the diagnosis , but living — even thriving — with cancer .
Cancer MoonShot 2020 , which aims to bring together government , pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies , academic centers , and community oncologists to find vaccine-based immunotherapies against cancer .
Expanding the Armamentarium
In the future , Dr . Miller believes that immunotherapy and genomic therapies will be used in combination , either in sequence or simultaneously , to treat cancer . For him , they are two more legs of what is now a five-legged stool of available cancer therapies : immunotherapy and genomic therapy , in addition to surgery , radiation and chemotherapy .
Immune Therapies Against Cancer
“ Just the same way we started using surgery , radiation and chemo as individual modalities — and then found out that in many cases we can get the most benefit out of using them in combinations — I believe we ’ ll see that same combination with targeted genomic therapies and immune therapies ,” Dr . Miller said .