The Ninja Inside You

Immunotherapy means using the body’s own immune system to attack, and kill, the cancer cells. Your immune system is made of special infection-fighting white blood cells called T cells.

How Immunotherapy Works

Blood Draw

Blood Draw

We do a simple blood draw from a patient

Reprogram T Cells

Reprogram T Cells

Using laboratory techniques, we reprogram the child's own T cells, training them to recognize enemy cancer cells.

T Cells Multiply

T Cells Multiply

When re-introduced into the patient’s body, the T cells multiply rapidly, seeking out and destroying cancer cells—without harming normal, healthy cells.

"You are watching the elimination of human neuroblastoma tumor cells (the large cells you see in the beginning of the video) by reprogrammed T cells we are developing for a clinical trial (the small cells that are moving around like little Pac-Men). Notice the absence of tumor cells and the presence of lots of T cells by the end of the video!"

Dr. Michael Jensen, Director
Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer Research