Boosting anti-cancer antibodies by reducing their grip

Antibodies detect and tag viruses and bacteria so the body's immune system can destroy them.

To help prevent a second infection our immune system fine-tunes these antibodies to have a tighter grip on these targets, known as higher affinity. Immunotherapy treatments for cancer use the same concept direct targeting antibodies are designed to find and bind tightly to the cancer cells so the immune system can kill them. These antibody treatments have proved successful for some cancers over the last few years, but many cancer patients still do not respond or become resistant to them.