lymph nodes tagged posts

Research from the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center could provide a new approach to treating an aggressive form of breast cancer.

A study led by Duxin Sun, Ph.D., found that targeting the immune microenvironment in lymph nodes and tumors simultaneously led to long-term tumor remission in mice models of metastatic triple negative breast cancer. Further, using nanoparticles to deliver these immune-altering drugs increases treatment efficacy. These results appear in Science Translational Medicine.

Immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy has been long approved as standard treatment option for triple negative breast cancer but only shows a limited response in patients...

For decades, physicians have known that many kinds of cancer cells often spread first to lymph nodes before traveling to distant organs through the bloodstream. New research from Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) provides insight into why this occurs, opening up new targets for treatments that could inhibit the spread of cancer.

The study, published today in Nature, found melanoma cells that pass through the lymph nodes pick up a protective coating, allowing them to survive high levels of oxidative stress in the blood and go on to form distant tumors.

A microscopic image of a mouse lymph node. Credit: Image courtesy of Kazuhiro Suzuki

Researchers in Japan have discovered that the adrenergic nervous system controls when white blood cells circulate through the body, boosting the immune response by retaining T and B cells in lymph nodes at the time of day when they are most likely to encounter foreign antigens. On their way around the body, T and B cells pass through lymph nodes, where specialized cells may present them with antigens from bacteria or other pathogens. The T and B cells then reenter the bloodstream in search of these pathogens so that they can kill them. Previous studies have suggested that number of T and B cells present in the bloodstream varies over the course of the day.

Kazuhiro Suzuki and colleagues from the WPI Immuno...