Immunotherapy, typically used for treating cancer in adults, can also be adjusted to treat children. Recent studies indicate that around 11,630 cases of childhood cancer will be reported, compared to 15 million in adults, showing that childhood cancer is less common. This could be why there is less research and development in children’s immunotherapy.
Crystal L. Mackall, M.D., the chief of the Pediatric Oncology Branch at the National Cancer Institute, believes that the true success of modern medicine lies in advancing treatments for childhood cancer. In the past, a cancer diagnosis in a child almost always led to death. Today, about 70% of children with cancer are successfully cured. Despite these improvements, cancer remains the leading cause of disease-related death in children over one year old, and outcomes for those with advanced cancer stages are still poor.
To tackle these challenges, researchers are developing new immunotherapies that can be used alone or alongside standard treatments like chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation. One area of focus is cancer vaccines. The first FDA-approved cancer vaccine, Provenge, was for prostate cancer back in 2010. While it slows cancer growth, it doesn’t shrink the tumors, making it less useful for aggressive childhood cancers. Researchers are now exploring tumor vaccines as preventive measures or alongside other treatments, which may benefit cases of aggressive childhood cancers seeking remission.
Another promising immunotherapy is dendritic cell vaccination. In this process, patients donate lymphocytes to the National Institute of Health (NIH) and receive chemotherapy or radiation at a local clinic. After completing their standard treatment, they return to NIH for the dendritic cell vaccine and immune system support. This therapy has shown significant benefits, including healthier immune systems and better control of cancer.
Adoptive cell transfer is another aggressive therapy that’s proving effective. It involves taking lymphocytes from the patient, enhancing their cancer-fighting abilities in a lab, and reinjecting them into the patient. This method has successfully treated many melanoma patients and is now being used for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
In addition to these methods, researchers are exploring various other immunotherapies for treating childhood cancers. The ongoing research is yielding promising results in clinical trials. Over time, the hope is that immunotherapy research will lead to complete cures for cancer.