Dr Carman Giacomantonio

Surgical oncologist. Professor of Surgery, Dalhousie. PI on two cancer immunotherapy trials. CMO, Sona Nanotech. The science is worth understanding.

[Dr Carman Giacomantonio @DrCarmanG]

#ESMO26 closed yesterday with one conviction reinforced: the field is converging on making tumors visible to the immune system, by many routes. A good time to be working on one of them. #OncologyCommunity

[Dr Carman Giacomantonio @DrCarmanG]

Sunday’s session at #ESMO26 on the environment, the antigens, and heterogeneity was key. Cold tumors stay cold because the environment keeps their antigens hidden from the immune system. Change that, locally, and everything downstream changes.

#OncologyCommunity

[Dr Carman Giacomantonio @DrCarmanG]

The tumor microenvironment is the core of the problem.

It is not just a mass of cancer cells. It is an environment those cells have built around themselves to survive, grow, and keep the immune system out.

Disrupt the environment and you change what the immune system can reach.

#CarmansCorner Episode 7: https://t.co/oxtcFaC9IK

#Oncology #Immunotherapy

[Dr Carman Giacomantonio @DrCarmanG]

When the immune system has engaged a cancer but the antigen signal is weak, the more checkpoints you need to block to keep the attack going - and the more healthy tissue gets caught in the crossfire.

The solution is not more blockade. It is a stronger signal.

Give the immune system more targets and it does not need as much help getting there. #CarmansCorner Episode 6: https://t.co/uVmqFgBX84

#Immunotherapy #Oncology

[Dr Carman Giacomantonio @DrCarmanG]

Blocking checkpoints lets the immune system attack cancer. Three out of ten times, it works.

Seven out of ten times it does not. And two out of ten patients develop serious autoimmunity because the same checkpoints that were holding back the cancer were also protecting healthy organs.

There has to be a better way.

#CarmansCorner Episode 5: https://t.co/Lr2LXS8IBg

#Immunotherapy #Oncology

[Dr Carman Giacomantonio @DrCarmanG]

The immune system can see cancer. The problem is that cancer can tell it to stop looking.

Checkpoint inhibitors block that signal. When they work, the immune system is free to do its job. 30 to 50 percent of patients respond.

The rest of this series is about that other 50 to 70 percent.

#CarmansCorner Episode 4: https://t.co/dLUw00z5ef

#Oncology #Immunotherapy

[Dr Carman Giacomantonio @DrCarmanG]

The immune system has two arms.

The innate arm responds first, fast and non-specific. If that is not enough, it calls in the adaptive arm. T-cells. Targeted. Precise. These are the cells that actually clear cancer from the body.

When both arms work, cancer does not survive.
#CarmansCorner Episode 3: https://t.co/eejH4mMalS

#Immunotherapy #Oncology

[Dr Carman Giacomantonio @DrCarmanG]

The immune system is always watching.

Every cell in your body carries a protein signature. When DNA breaks, that signature changes. The immune system is built to find those changes and kill the cell.

Cancer has learned how to send the wrong signal.
#CarmansCorner Episode 2: https://t.co/WtTYMgJkSH

#Immunotherapy #Oncology

[Dr Carman Giacomantonio @DrCarmanG]

Cancer is what happens when a cell forgets how to die.

Our bodies renew constantly. The old cell goes, the new one carries on. In cancer, the old cell refuses to leave. That is what a tumor is.

#CarmansCorner Episode 1: https://t.co/iHnQaIDObc
#Oncology