Ovarian cancers are notoriously difficult to treat.
Credit: iStock.com/Elena Nechaeva
Ovarian tumors are extremely difficult to get rid of. Scientists are figuring out how to leverage the immune system to help.
Ovarian cancer is notoriously hard to treat — particularly metastatic ovarian cancer, which is often resistant to the standard treatments of surgical removal and chemotherapy. Even when the ovaries are completely removed, cancerous cells can remain and wreak havoc on the body.
Among other reasons, ovarian cancer is dangerous because it transforms the body’s immune system into a dysfunctional mess. “There’s this idea of a hostile microenvironment in ovarian cancer,” said Roddy O’Connor, an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania. The body’s T cells…