French researchers have found an association between how well the body responds to colon tumors and survival among more than 400 patients with the disease. They suggest that analyzing tumors for the presence of certain immune cells could yield valuable prognostic information for patients.

The results support the theory that the immune system may influence the behavior of tumors. In recent years, studies of ovarian cancer and follicular lymphoma have suggested that the presence or absence of certain immune cells in tumors can be used to predict the survival of patients with these diseases. Read more  

CEI: Advancing Immunology and Immunotherapies for Cancer

Dr. Robert H. Wiltrout, Director, Center for Cancer Research

The Center of Excellence in Immunology (CEI) is one of five Centers of Excellence in the NCI intramural research program (IRP). CEI's mission is to foster discovery, development, and delivery of novel immunologic approaches to prevent and treat cancer and cancer-associated viral diseases. CEI comprises a 19-member steering committee and a faculty of approximately 100 principal investigators and staff scientists from more than 20 different Center for Cancer Research (CCR) laboratories, programs, and branches. CEI faculty includes two members of the National Academy of Sciences and five members of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

This multidisciplinary organization represents a means to create a critical mass of basic, clinical, and translational scientists, with the objectives of quickly defining new areas of opportunity and more rapidly capitalizing on the novel immunology- and immunotherapy-related work being done in NCI's CCR to accelerate our scientific advances. Read more  

The NCI Cancer Bulletin is produced by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). NCI, which was established in 1937, leads the national effort to eliminate the suffering and death due to cancer. Through basic, clinical, and population-based biomedical research and training, NCI conducts and supports research that will lead to a future in which we can identify the environmental and genetic causes of cancer, prevent cancer before it starts, identify cancers that do develop at the earliest stage, eliminate cancers through innovative treatment interventions, and biologically control those cancers that we cannot eliminate so they become manageable, chronic diseases. For more information on cancer, call 1-800-4-CANCER or visit http://www.cancer.gov. NCI Cancer Bulletin staff can be reached at ncicancerbulletin@mail.nih.gov.