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 ONCOLOGY: Mutated Target Gives Potency to Lung Cancer Medication
The question of why the targeted cancer drug gefitinib (Iressa) is spectacularly effective on 10 percent of lung cancers while leaving many untouched has been answered by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Their two independent studies, which appeared online in Science and The New England Journal of Medicine on April 29, found mutations in gefitinib's target, the epidermal growth factor receptor, that determine whether tumors will respond to the drug or not. The authors include Daniel Haber (left), and Matthew Meyerson and William Sellers (at right, left to right). "These studies give strength to a general view of cancer treatment, which is the concept of targeted therapy and targeting mutations that are important for cancer growth," Meyerson said.
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 PATHOLOGY: Suppressor Cell Subset Crucial Against Autoimmunity
In the 1960s, the hypothesis was advanced that immune suppressor cells prevent autoimmune reactions in mammals. It was not until the last few years, however, that convincing evidence for CD4 suppressor T cells emerged. Now, in the May Nature Immunology, Harvey Cantor and colleagues provide genetic proof for the existence of CD8 suppressor T cells. The scientists examined the immune responses of mice lacking the gene for Qa-1, an immune molecule that is part of the major histocompatibility complex. Though otherwise normal, the mice were susceptible to a variety of autoimmune reactions. The findings add in vivo support to previous in vitro evidence--from Cantor's and other labs--that Qa-1 regulates suppression of autoreactive T cells by a subset of CD8 T cells.
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 EDUCATION: Harvard Introduces Joint MD-MBA
HMS and Harvard Business School have announced that they will launch a five-year joint MD-MBA program in September 2005. The program's mission is to develop outstanding physician leaders, skilled in both medicine and management, who will seek positions of leadership in health care and related fields. Ron Arky was one of the early architects of the joint degree program.
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Copyright 2004 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
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