Avid Bioservices Inc (CDMO)

[biopharm]

I did speak too soon there and my fault....though Dr Jedd Wolchok may have advised that strategy as a bandaid for the time being.... as Dr Jedd Wolchok is certainly not talking about CTX next week

Cytotoxic agents, such as cyclophosphamide (CTX), induce lymphopenia and provide multiple immunomodulatory effects beneficial for adoptive T cell transfer (North, 1982; Bracci et al., 2007). CTX can remove suppressive cell populations (Awwad and North, 1988), sensitize tumor cells for immune destruction (van der Most et al., 2009), release tumor antigens and TLR agonists (Nowak et al., 2003; Apetoh et al., 2007), and promote homeostatic proliferation of transferred cells (Brode and Cooke, 2008).

Recent advances in immunotherapy have shown that checkpoint blockade with CTLA-4 and PD-1 blocking antibodies have resulted in significant clinical benefit in a variety of different malignancies (Brahmer et al., 2010; Wolchok et al., 2010). CTLA-4 blockade with ipilimumab produces an overall survival benefit in patients with metastatic melanoma, yet only 20–30% of patients seem to be sensitive to this intervention (Hodi et al., 2010; Robert et al., 2011). These recent advances in immune modulation, particularly checkpoint blockade with monoclonal antibodies, advocate for the incorporation of novel strategies that target T cell costimulation.
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http://jem.rupress.org/content/209/11/2113