immunologist Ralph Steinman was honored today by the Nobel Committee for his discovery of dendritic cells, a class of immune cells help rally the natural body defenses to fight against the disease. However, the price is bittersweet for those who knew the scientist 68-year-old during his long career as a researcher and mentor at Rockefeller University in New York City. Steinman became the first winner of dying of pancreatic cancer between his selection and announcement of the coveted award. And he fought his cancer using experimental therapies involving his discoveries.
This afternoon, the Nobel Foundation announced that Nobel Steinman would stand. "The events that occurred are unique and, to the best of our knowledge, are unprecedented in the history of the Nobel Prize," the statement read. "According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, work produced by a person since deceased will not be awarded a prize. However, the statutes specify that if a person received a prize and has died before receiving it, the prize may be presented. " Because Steinman was selected as the winner before his death, even though the announcement came after his death, the Board of the Nobel Foundation stands by his choice.
"Dendritic cells are the guys who are training fighters," said Pawel Kalinski, an immunologist at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, about their role in the activation of T cells, immune lookouts body. over the decades, with Steinman often leading the way, the work has transformed cancer research. cancer vaccines either using or targeting dendritic cells are now the subject of numerous clinical trials, and all first vaccine against cancer to be approved in the United States called Provenge, to treat prostate cancer cells injected own dendritic a patient back into their bodies. He went on the market last year.
Like all vaccines against cancer, it has been difficult to obtain immunotherapy dendritic cells to destroy tumors in people. the aim is to selectively activate certain T cells that are best suited to target Cancer.
One difficulty is that the dendritic cells of each are different, so vaccines must be customized, making them costly and labor intensive to produce. Provenge, for example, costs $ 93,000 for three doses, and extends the life of only about 3 months. Yet, he "was a direct validation of the concept of Ralph," said Kalinski, and vaccines designed more recently, he believes, work better. A paper he published earlier this year in Journal of Clinical Oncology describes a vaccine to dendritic cells in advanced glioma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. Nine of the 22 people who received it were alive a year later, with no signs of progress, a rarity in a cancer too serious as this one.
another strategy that Steinman and others were studying, involves therapy to target dendritic cells inside the body rather than remove and customize the treatment for each patient. These treatments are just starting out in clinical trials, said human immunologist Madhav Dhodapkar of Yale University, who is involved in this effort. it was "somewhat of a roller coaster," he said, but " I think we are now beginning to see evidence for immune-based approaches work in cancer. "
Steinman also pushed hard to test therapies in people. "He was one of the first ... to say," We have to study humans, "said Dhodopkar, something that has had a lasting impact
When Steinman was diagnosed with cancer. pancreas in 07, he knew he wanted to collect his own dendritic cells in the fight. "he had great faith in dendritic cells," says Sarah Schlesinger, physician and immunologist at Rockefeller. "he believed they would establish the immunity, and the cure. "
Steinman tried many experimental treatments, including two involved dendritic cell therapies designed especially for him. A company Argos Therapeutics, had a dendritic cell vaccine in trials for kidney cancer, personalized vaccine for Steinman, although his cancer was a different type; scientists at Baylor University Medical Center have done something similar for another vaccine to dendritic cells, they were testing in melanoma. Both were formal clinical trials have been closely reviewed by the US Food and Drug Administration. Steinman also tried a therapy called GVAX, which aims to recruit dendritic cells in the body. "There were dozens of colleagues across the country who helped," says Schlesinger.
Like many who worked with Steinman, Schlesinger described him as unfailingly generous. She met him as a high school student, calling on the blue in search of work in his laboratory. He could not pay him, Schlesinger said, but would offer its good for lunch. That was enough, and he became her mentor throughout. "He would always introduce me as his colleague, and I always present it as my boss."
Kalinski recalled his studies in the 1980s in his native Poland, where the well-stocked libraries and science labs were largely nonexistent. "Every Monday, I spend about 5 hours to write applications for people to send me their latest documents because our library was dysfunctional," he said. Steinman "always he replied," and also sent samples of one of his first antibody against dendritic cells.
Steinman lab kept active until the end. Schlesinger visited him there just a week with data on a clinical trial of HIV a vaccine to dendritic cells, Steinman and was absorbed by what she had to share. While the Nobel prize was well deserved, Dhodapkar said, "it obviously would have been better if he was capable of hear the news itself. "
Fix: This article has been clarified to indicate that scientists were working on a vaccine to dendritic cells at Baylor University Medical Center.
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