This story begins in 2016 when John Herr, director of UVA’s Center for Research in Contraceptive and Reproductive Health, ran a 10K, went home and died of a massive heart attack. His colleagues, surgical oncologist Craig Slingluff, says Herr was on the verge of important discoveries that could someday cure cancer.
“One of the frustrating things is to see patients have advanced cancers that we can’t treat," he says.
While working to develop a vaccine that could protect women from unwanted pregnancy, Herr had discovered a protein found only in human egg cells and in the uterus.
“The tissue that he’d gotten that specimen from was from a uterus that had a cancer in it,” Slingluff recalls.
He explains that the protein was found inside uterine cells but on the surface of cancer cells – which made it a promising target for immunotherapy.
“The notion that these proteins can be attacked with antibodies on cancer but spare the normal cells, even though it’s present in the tissues is really interesting.”
The same protein is found on the surface of tumor cells in people with melanoma, breast, ovarian, pancreatic, lung and kidney cancers. Slingluff and his team hope to begin studies in laboratory animals soon. Their latest findings were published in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
