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(Fr v) Yvonne Wengström and Cecilia Haddad Ringborg spoke about the importance of exercise, both to prevent cancer and to improve response to cancer treatment. Photo: Malin Jochumsen.
– The positive effect of exercise applies to everyone and the more active you are, the lower the risk of getting cancer, said Cecilia Haddad Ringborg.
Studies have also shown that physical activity can improve response to treatment and that the risk of relapse is reduced.
– If patients knew that physical activity can improve the chance of survival, they would probably want to be helped with physical activity already during treatment, assesses Yvonne Wengström and urged physical activity on prescription.
Tailored therapeutic vaccines
Gunilla Karlsson Hedestam, professor at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology at Karolinska Institutet, presented several aspects of the immune system’s role in the development of precision medicine cancer treatment.
In addition to emphasizing the importance of developing vaccines against more tumor-promoting viruses, she also reflected on several existing treatment methods where the immune system is activated to fight the cancer.
Among other things, a type of cell therapy where T cells from patients are modified to target cancer cells. Another method is checkpoint therapy, an immunotherapy where certain T cells are blocked to prevent them from defending cancer cells.
In conclusion, Gunilla Karlsson Hedestam touched on the growing area of tailor-made therapeutic vaccines.
An example of the researchers’ challenges regarding vaccine development is that each tumor is unique and that tumors often inhibit the immune system. The solution to both of these challenges is tailored vaccines.
