Summary
In this episode of the Drive podcast, the host interviews Dr. Steven Rosenberg, a renowned cancer researcher, who discusses his childhood memories and how he developed a desire to become a doctor and do research to alleviate suffering. Dr. Rosenberg pursued a combined bachelor's MD degree program at Hopkins and later a PhD in biophysics at Harvard. He also completed his residency at the Peterborough Brigham Hospital and joined the immunology branch at NIH during the Vietnam War. He discusses the importance of having smart and inspiring mentors, such as Frannie Moore, in his life.
Dr. Rosenberg discusses his experience as the chief of surgery at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) after finishing his residency. He had great hopes for making progress in cancer research after the National Cancer Act was passed, but he also acknowledges that the complexities of cancer make it a difficult disease to treat. He turned to immunology and began experimenting with implanting human tumors into pigs and using lymphocytes with immune reactivity to treat patients. He eventually discovered T-cell growth factor in 1976, which allowed him to manipulate lymphocytes outside the body and grow lymphocytes that had anti-tumor activity.
The context discusses the advancements in cancer treatment and the challenges that come with it. While some regimens approved by the FDA have prolonged survival by months, cancer care remains expensive as patients move from one treatment to another, with none being curative. Immunotherapy, with its sensitivity and specificity, has potential importance in developing new cancer treatments. Dr. Rosenberg discusses his work with interleukin-2, a molecule that stimulates rare cells in the body to recognize and attack cancerous cells.
The immune system recognizes products of mutations in melanoma, which has more mutations than any other cancer type except for lung cancer. The more mutations a cancer has, the more likely it is to develop a foreign protein that can be recognized by the immune system. The context discusses the development of chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) T-cell therapy, which involves putting antibody recognition domains into a lymphocyte to expand the number of molecules it can recognize. The therapy targets molecules unique to cancer cells and has been successful in treating B-cell lymphomas and leukemias.
Dr. Rosenberg's research has focused on genetically modifying lymphocytes to target unique mutations in cancer cells, leading to promising results in clinical trials. The podcast also discusses the potential of adoptive cell therapy to cure solid organ metastatic cancer by genetically or naturally occurring in a customized format. The recognition that virtually every solid tumor out there has novel peptides that can be recognized by a patient's immune system is a significant milestone. The podcast also touches on the importance of sharing information and experimental results to help cancer patients and overcome secrecy in medicine.
