{"id":12352,"date":"2025-11-28T11:29:48","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T10:29:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/?p=12352"},"modified":"2025-11-28T11:29:48","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T10:29:48","slug":"news-from-the-lab-can-we-train-the-immune-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/en\/news-from-the-lab-can-we-train-the-immune-system\/","title":{"rendered":"News from the Lab: Can we train the immune system?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dE_ruyZRfmY?si=UFqJ0XiiIhtjbRTO\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">Bladder cancer is <\/span><b>one of the most common urological tumours<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">In over 75% of cases, it&#8217;s diagnosed when the tumour is in its non-muscle invasive form; i.e. it hasn&#8217;t reached the muscle layer of the bladder.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">The standard treatments consist of administering <\/span><b>BCG<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">, a vaccine derived from <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">Mycobacterium tuberculosis<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\"> that&#8217;s introduced directly into the bladder to activate the immune system and slow down the disease.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">But there&#8217;s a limitation to this approach: <\/span><b>it doesn&#8217;t always prevent relapses or stop tumour progression.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">For this reason, the research team from IrsiCaixa and the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute, in collaboration with Archivel Farma, proposed a new approach:<\/span><b> What if, before administering treatment, we could train the immune system to make it more effective? <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irsicaixa.es\/en\/cecilia-cabrera-navarro\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">Cecilia Cabrera<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">, the study&#8217;s principal investigator, answers this question in this latest <\/span><b><i>News from the Lab.\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">One way to achieve this could be via RUTI\u00ae, a vaccine based on fragments of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">Mycobacterium tuberculosis<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\"> designed to act as pre-training.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">\u201cRUTI\u00ae <\/span><b>warms up the immune system<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">\u201d, explains Cecilia. \u201cIt activates and prepares our defences so that, when the BCG arrives, the immune system&#8217;s response is faster and more powerful\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">To evaluate this strategy, the team carried out a study with 40\u00a0 patients who were monitored for five years. The results, published in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0302283825005056?via%3Dihub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">European Urology<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">, were particularly promising: <\/span><b>fewer relapses, less progression and higher survival rates <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">in the group receiving RUTI\u00ae before the BCG treatment. \u201cIn fact, during follow-up no death was recorded among the patients who were given the combination, compared with three in the group treated only with BCG\u201d, notes Cabrera.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">The next step is to confirm these results in larger trials \u201cbut the signs are clear\u201d, explains Cecilia:<\/span><b> \u201creinforcing the immune system before treatment could make a significant difference in the outcome for these patients<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d.<\/span><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dE_ruyZRfmY?si=UFqJ0XiiIhtjbRTO\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">\ufeff<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Bladder cancer is one of the most common urological tumours. In over 75% of cases, it&#8217;s diagnosed when the tumour is in its non-muscle invasive form; i.e. it hasn&#8217;t reached the muscle layer of the bladder.<\/p>\n<p>The standard treatments consist of administering BCG, a vaccine derived from <i>Mycobacterium tuberculosis<\/i> that&#8217;s introduced directly into the bladder to activate the immune system and slow down the disease.<\/p>\n<p>But there&#8217;s a limitation to this approach: it doesn&#8217;t always prevent relapses or stop tumour progression.<\/p>\n<p>For this reason, the research team from IrsiCaixa and the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute, in collaboration with Archivel Farma, proposed a new approach: What if,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sin-categorizar"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>News from the Lab: Can we train the immune system? - Blog CaixaCi\u00e8ncia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/en\/news-from-the-lab-can-we-train-the-immune-system\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"News from the Lab: Can we train the immune system? - Blog CaixaCi\u00e8ncia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\ufeff Bladder cancer is one of the most common urological tumours. In over 75% of cases, it&#8217;s diagnosed when the tumour is in its non-muscle invasive form; i.e. it hasn&#8217;t reached the muscle layer of the bladder. The standard treatments consist of administering BCG, a vaccine derived from Mycobacterium tuberculosis that&#8217;s introduced directly into the bladder to activate the immune system and slow down the disease. But there&#8217;s a limitation to this approach: it doesn&#8217;t always prevent relapses or stop tumour progression. For this reason, the research team from IrsiCaixa and the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute, in collaboration with Archivel Farma, proposed a new approach: What if,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/en\/news-from-the-lab-can-we-train-the-immune-system\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blog CaixaCi\u00e8ncia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-28T10:29:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ubikmedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ubikmedia\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/en\/news-from-the-lab-can-we-train-the-immune-system\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/en\/news-from-the-lab-can-we-train-the-immune-system\/\",\"name\":\"News from the Lab: Can we train the immune system? - Blog CaixaCi\u00e8ncia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-28T10:29:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/#\/schema\/person\/2b9d5310c27055b4862191402c387fca\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/en\/news-from-the-lab-can-we-train-the-immune-system\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/\",\"name\":\"Blog CaixaCi\u00e8ncia\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/#\/schema\/person\/2b9d5310c27055b4862191402c387fca\",\"name\":\"Ubikmedia\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ccc66bc497f8ba496f9d06e5a58a91de?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ccc66bc497f8ba496f9d06e5a58a91de?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ubikmedia\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/en\/author\/ubikmedia\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"News from the Lab: Can we train the immune system? - Blog CaixaCi\u00e8ncia","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/en\/news-from-the-lab-can-we-train-the-immune-system\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"News from the Lab: Can we train the immune system? - Blog CaixaCi\u00e8ncia","og_description":"\ufeff Bladder cancer is one of the most common urological tumours. In over 75% of cases, it&#8217;s diagnosed when the tumour is in its non-muscle invasive form; i.e. it hasn&#8217;t reached the muscle layer of the bladder. The standard treatments consist of administering BCG, a vaccine derived from Mycobacterium tuberculosis that&#8217;s introduced directly into the bladder to activate the immune system and slow down the disease. But there&#8217;s a limitation to this approach: it doesn&#8217;t always prevent relapses or stop tumour progression. 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