Promising 'Stop Switch' Discovered that Could Stop Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma in its Tracks

Safety switches are incredibly important for any type of machinery or device. Nobody wants engines to overheat or electrical appliances to spontaneously combust.

Nature has a way of safety checking its own mechanisms too. Human cells are equipped with safety switches that make sure a defective cell doesn't continue growing.

When these switches fail, that's when cancer occurs.

Cancer is an uncontrolled growth of bad, defective cells. These cells are constantly growing and dividing, eventually imposing on the space of healthy, functioning cells of our body. This is why cancer is so destructive - it's wiping out the rest of our body like a rampant weed or pest.

New research initiatives for non-Hodgkin lymphoma

Scientists at the Technical University of Munich have decided to look at emergency stop switches that may exist in human immune cells. They hoped that by finding a switch like this, they could develop new ways to treat aggressive cancers, like T-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Promising results

The scientists had some luck with their work. They discovered an emergency switch in T-cells, which are a type of white blood cell responsible for targeting and directly killing sick cells such as cancerous ones or those infected by bacteria. They hoped that their discovery could help develop new treatments for people with T-cell specific, non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Because patients with this type of cancer have a disease that affects T-cells specifically, they reasoned that the emergency switch has a pretty high chance of working in this patient population.

What happens to the T-cells in non-Hodgkin lymphoma?

In T-cell lymphoma, the T-cells of the immune system have gained harmful mutations in their DNA that makes them not only divide like crazy but also makes them unable to function properly. These cells quickly accumulate, saturating the bloodstream with immune cells that are unable to do their job and protect the body from illness. Obviously, this causes many problems for the patient. Not only is the blood getting thicker and thicker, it's also reducing the amount of space available for functioning blood cells, such as those that work in our immune system to keep up healthy, and the blood cells that help us carry oxygen to tissues.

This type of lymphoma is extremely aggressive, and patients often don't see very much hope

Patients who have T-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma have a poor prognosis. This cancer is extremely aggressive, with a very low rate of successful treatment.

Germany, the home country of this research team, sees 1 case of this lymphoma per 100,000 people. The team is working hard to understand the molecular mechanisms behind this cancer so they can find a better way to help those afflicted.

Read on to learn more about this study, and about its promising results for the future of non-Hodgkin lymphoma patients.