Humans have evolved a remarkably complex and finely tuned immune system to fend off malevolent pathogens such as bacteria and viruses. At the same time, this intricate defense system has the ability to distinguish self from non-self and to be restrained when appropriate. This balance, or homeostasis, limits detrimental attacks on normal tissues while protecting us from the pathogens encountered throughout life.  When the balance is tilted too far from homeostasis, the system breaks down and autoimmune diseases, infections or cancer may flourish.

 

Cancer is a diverse spectrum of devastating diseases with a common thread, genetic mutations. These mutations, along with other changes in cancer cell metabolism, stress response, polarity, and epigenetics, etc., differentiate cancer cells from normal ones and create the prospect for cancer-eradicating immune responses. Countering that effort is the selective pressure cancer cells have to survive and their increased rate of proliferation and ability to adapt to their environment. The mere presence of a tumor is evidence for a failed immune response with the corollary being an opportunity to reignite an immune response to eradicate the tumor cells.

 

Our understanding of the complexities of the immune system has grown immensely over the last several decades. Technological advances have provided the tools to identify distinct cell types with specific functions, interactions at the cellular level within a living organism and the pathways, enzymes and processes that constitute a normal or dysfunctional immune response. This knowledge base is vast and growing exponentially, yet it remains largely unexploited for the purposes of identifying innovative ways to activate and modulate the immune system to fight cancer.

 

At Flexus, we believe the promise of immune therapy to be vast but largely untapped with current approaches. While tumor responses to current immunotherapies can be dramatic in a minority of patients, new approaches are needed to increase the number of patients who benefit and the breadth of cancer types for which this strategy can work. Not since the 1940’s and the advent of chemotherapy has there been a more promising time in the world of anti-cancer therapeutics than now.