The Center is thus planning to use the combination of vitamin C and lipoic acid together with immune stimulators in a Phase 1 clinical trial with metastatic renal cancer patients. To highlight the importance of immune response, Neil Riordan sited a study indicating that breast cancer patients who demonstrated some immune reaction against their tumor cells had a much better prognosis than those who did not. The goal of this research is to stimulate the cell mediated arm of the immune system. Cell mediated immunity involves the recognition and killing of altered host cells, including tumor cells, by T-lymphocytes. One method for stimulating cell mediated immunity is to administer cytokines or other biological response modifiers, including some of the natural product extracts described above, to patients.
Cytokines are chemical substances that trigger and regulate immune response.
Another approach toward immunotherapy involves the ex vivo growth of dendritic cells. Dendritic cells are antigen presenting cells responsible for training T-lymphocytes to recognize tumor cells as targets. To this end, a small clinical research facility in San Jose, Costa Rica, has been established to more rapidly assess the clinical applicability of immunotherapy. Limited clinical trials began last year and will be expanded during 1999.