Hack­ing in­to macrophage at­tack cir­cuits, Stan­ford sci­en­tists pitch a bet­ter ear­ly-warn­ing alert sys­tem for tu­mors

Af­ter years of fine tun­ing ways to en­list the im­mune sys­tem in the fight against can­cer, im­munother­a­py has tak­en the field by storm, with a No­bel prize and a pair of block­buster check­point drugs to boast. But can im­mune cells help in an even broad­er ef­fort — flag­ging ma­lig­nant tu­mors be­fore they are de­tectable by tra­di­tion­al in­stru­ments?

Push­ing the thresh­old of can­cer di­ag­noses to ear­li­er and ear­li­er stages of the dis­ease is one of the Holy Grails in on­col­o­gy, in­spir­ing mul­ti­mil­lion-dol­lar in­vest­ments in­to star­tups like Grail. This week, a team from Stan­ford has chipped in with their own pitch and some mouse da­ta to show for it.

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