A team of German researchers has used some nanoparticles containing RNA of tumour cells, capable to stimulate an immunity answer that tackle the tumour cells themselves, by achieving encouraging results. This progress can be a starting point for “a new class of universal applicable vaccines for the immunotherapy against the cancer”. This is the conclusion of a German scientific article published the 2 June on the review Nature. This is a turning point verified only on a small number of patients and for this reason not yet achieved. But the research is considered very promising by the experts. The idea is simple: stimulating the immunity system of a person affected by cancer to induce him to recognise his own tumour cells. This is easier said than done, but the cancer, different from a virus that is rapidly recognised by the body, is made up of some cells which are very similar to normal cells: for this reason the immunity system doesn’t attack them spontaneously. Moreover, the development of the cancer is not accompanied by an inflammation (and other biochemical warning signals) as in the case of a microbial invasion. This is the reason why a person can live with the cancer for many years without knowing it.
