The LICR Clinical Programs
The conventional cancer therapies of chemotherapy and radiotherapy act against rapidly dividing cancer cells. However, because these drugs also affect normal cells that divide rapidly, most chemotherapies cause distressing side-effects.
LICR is developing therapies that more selectively target cancer cells, and therefore do not damage normal cells. It is thought that targeted therapies will not only more effectively treat cancer, but will also produce far fewer and less severe side-effects.
Targeted Antibodies
LICR has focused on tumor immunology as one of its major research efforts for more than three decades. Over the years, LICR investigators have assembled a large portfolio of mouse monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) which specifically target tumors from a wide-range of cancers. A targeted antibody can be used to trigger the immune system to attack cancer cells, or can be used to deliver a toxin or radioactive molecule direct to the cancer cell.
Cancer Vaccines
LICR is a leading authority in the development and testing of therapeutic cancer vaccines. The concept of using cancer vaccines to modulate human cancer is based upon the body’s ability to induce immune responses specific for antigens expressed specifically, or preferentially, by tumor cells. A vaccine would thus stimulate the body’s own immune system to fight cancer cells, and prevent their spread around the body.
Small Molecule Inhibitors
Through their pioneering work in the disciplines of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, LICR investigators have dissected many signal transduction pathways implicated in carcinogenesis, and have thus identified key molecules that contribute to cancer formation and spread. LICR is now investigating treatment strategies using small molecule inhibitors that might work against these key molecules and prevent them from corrupting signal transduction pathways and biological processes and causing tumor growth and/or cancer spread.