Damon Runyon Researchers

Dr. Brody aims to develop a novel treatment approach for patients with advanced-stage lymphoma, by which the patient's immune system is trained to recognize and eliminate his/her own cancer. This approach, an "in situ vaccine," recruits and activates specific immune cells, dendritic cells (DC), at the location of the treated tumor - where they can then educate the rest of the immune system to recognize and eliminate tumors throughout the body. The first patients enrolled on this clinical trial have already shown the recruitment and activation of DC within the treated tumor as well as regressions of lymphoma at sites distant from the treated site.  The in situ vaccine will initially be tested in patients with low-grade lymphoma, with the goal of quickly expanding to other tumor types including melanoma and head and neck cancer.