Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://www.instagram.com/p/DNd8M5osKnr/Ovarian cancer cells tend to be resistant to the best cancer therapies including chemo-, radiation-, and immuno.  University of Chicago OB-GYN oncologists, collaborating with the National Cancer Institute’s Experimental Therapeutics researchers, now look to a novel approach that seeks to disarm the so-called Cancer Associated Fibroblasts, CAFs, that provide protective cover for the cancer cells themselves.A tumor-induced enzyme NNMT is necessary for normal fibroblasts to convert into the CAFs that shield the ovarian cancer cells by suppressing the body’s immune no reaction to them and permit the cancer to flourish and metastasize to other parts of the body.The UChicago team developed a powerful NNMT inhibitor compound that successfully halts this transformation at least in a preclinical mouse ovarian cancer model.  Administering this drug along with immune checkpoint inhibitors effectively halted tumor growth.This approach may finally yield effective therapy f