Excitement Over Immunomodulation Inundates Clinical Research Meetings
"THE WAVE of the future"—a phrase repeatedly used by investigators recently in Seattle, Wash, to describe their innovative work in immunotherapy—seemed particularly apt when invoked in such a water-oriented city. At the combined annual meetings of the Association of American Physicians, American Society for Clinical Investigation, and American Federation for Clinical Research, researchers reported a spate of new disease treatments that result from advances in understanding immunology.Among them are the first promising therapy for metastatic renal carcinoma, a new approach to treating rheumatoid arthritis, and combination immunotherapy for septic shock. Other similar efforts (not reported in Seattle) include research at Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, Mass, to try to reverse type 1 diabetes mellitus and studies at Baylor-Sammons Cancer Center, Dallas, Tex, aimed at destroying the tumor cells involved in B-cell lymphoma.One investigator likened this philosophy of manipulating the immune system