Just now learning some of the basics when it comes to immunotherapy & it’s my understanding that much of this is a strategic approach to attacking the cancer or tumors by getting the immune system to treat or recognize the cancers as something foreign.
I have a question regarding this, and I am a bit embarrassed of my ignorance. But I think it’s worth asking anyway.
In learning a few things about cancers, it has lead me to some conjuncture and that the cancer types are somehow influenced by blood types, and I have found I was correct in my thinking. My reasoning behind that was if a red blood cell for an individual carries a distinct protein, with distinct DNA it may be prone to certain parts of the body, which could morph along with damaged cells and create a malignancy.
Anyway, this leads me back to immunotherapy and begs me to ask this question;
Example; If a person with blood type B has a cancerous tumor. If that person were to be given a transfusion of another blood type, let’s say blood type O, thus delivering via the red blood cells to the tumor cells, proteins and DNA that would normally be attacked by the immune system.
Have things like this been tried before, I would like to read of them if they have?
Thanks
Reply # - December 9, 2017, 12:25 AM
Hi kurts,
Hi kurts,
I don't think that has been tried. Researchers have been trying for decades to get the immune system to fight cancer and have begun to make good inroads. The successes have been in drug development that target PD-L1 expression in the cells on and around cancerous tumors.
Janine
Reply # - December 9, 2017, 03:59 AM
Hi kurts,
Hi kurts,
It looks like Janine responded while I was typing, but I'll still add this:
There is evidence that a particular blood type can be associated with a higher risk of developing certain cancers, but using mismatched blood types to turn the immune system against cancer is not something I've seen discussed, and I'm not surprised. Introducing a different type of blood into the body can cause a life-threatening reaction, as the immune system attacks cells throughout the body.
JimC
Forum moderator
Reply # - December 9, 2017, 04:03 AM
And here's a podcast on the
And here's a podcast on the mechanism of action of current immunotherapies: http://cancergrace.org/cancer-treatments/2014/12/11/it_forum_what_immun…
JimC
Forum moderator
Reply # - December 9, 2017, 10:06 AM
My wife was found to have a
My wife was found to have a stage 1, uterine carcinosarcoma, this was about a year ago. This was discovered after surgery to remove uterine fibroids. She has had a laparoscopic total hysterectomy. She also has had 6 rounds of chemotherapy. The chemo was finished up earlier in the year and in a follow up CT scan, one of 4 small left lung nodules (an existing condition) changed from a 2mm to a 5 mm.
I’m with the Doctors opinion that this is not the time to get overly worried, but to follow up on it with another CT scan in two months. There seems a lot of good reasoning to believe that this may be benign rather than a malignancy.
My thought behind this question was not necessarily based in inducing some sort of acute hemolytic reaction. But based more in the realm of how to influence the morphing of a malignancy by the introduction of proteins and DNA that are foreign to the host, and basically forcing a change in the cancer cell to represent itself differently. The existing cancers are supplied proteins from the blood supply and use them to multiply, divide and represent themselves as normal cells with these proteins. (I think of it like one of those crabs at the bottom of the sea that picks up everything in its surroundings, and sticks it on the back of their shells. I’m supposed to be here- don’t eat me the crab says). Anyways, if the cancer cells were to divide and mutate, as we know they do, they must be using the blood supplied materials and by basically tricking the cancerous cells into using foreign proteins to build upon become a cell that could be attacked by the hosts normal WBCs.
And just to clarify, RBCs of blood type O are safe to transfuse into someone of a different blood type.
Thank you for the video link of the immunotherapy, it is very enlightening. I didn’t realize how resent most of the significant developments have been. I have to say it is very promising, hopeful as to say.