Immune system kills spontaneous blood cancer cells every day

Date: Feb-03-2014A new study from Australia suggests B cells, a type of white blood cell, undergo

spontaneous changes that could lead to cancer if the immune system does not carry out regular

checks and kill them before they form tumors.

In the journal Nature Medicine, Dr. Axel Kallies, of the Walter and Eliza Hall

Institute in Parkville, Victoria, and colleagues report that the immune system removes errant B

cells before they become cancerous.

"Each and every one of us has spontaneous mutations in our immune B cells that

occur as a result of their normal function," Dr. Kallies says.

If cancerous B cells go on to form tumors they develop into B cell lymphomas, also known as

non-Hodgkin's lymphomas.

The researchers found T cells of the immune system carry out regular checks to find cancerous

and pre-cancerous B cells.

They made the discovery while investigating how B cell lymphomas arise, and they believe this

regular surveillance by the immune system is probably why there are not as many cases of B cell

lymphomas in the population, given how often the spontaneous changes occur.

They suggest the discovery offers the prospect of an early-warning test that could find

patients at higher risk for developing B cell lymphomas. This could lead to treatments that

prevent the tumors growing in the first place.

Disabling T cells led to faster-growing lymphomas

In their study, the team showed how disabling T cells in mice led to lymphomas growing within

weeks, instead of the years that they normally take to develop.

If cancerous B cells go on to form tumors, they develop into B cell lymphomas, also known as

non-Hodgkin's lymphomas.

Co-author David Tarlinton, an associate professor at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute,

says:

"In the majority of patients, the first sign that something is wrong is finding an

established tumor, which in many cases is difficult to treat. Now that we know B cell lymphoma

is suppressed by the immune system, we could use this information to develop a diagnostic test

that identifies people in early stages of this disease, before tumors develop and they progress

to cancer."

He says treatments that could remove the errant B cells already exist, so once a test is

developed it should not take long to move toward clinical use.

According to estimates from the National Cancer Institute, nearly 70,000 Americans were

diagnosed with B cell or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2013, and just over 19,000 died of the

disease.

In Australia, where it is the most common blood cancer, about 2,800 cases are diagnosed each year.

Patients with weakened immune systems are most at risk.

Funds from the Victorian Government, Cancer Council Victoria, the Australian National Health

and Medical Research Council, Australian Research Council, and the Leukaemia Foundation of

Australia financed the study.

In October 2013, Medical News Today reported on another study that suggested

activating aging in tumor cells

may help lymphoma treatment. A team of US researchers found that in the case of large B cell

lymphoma, reactivating a gene that controls normal aging prevented tumor cells dividing.

Written by Catharine Paddock PhD




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