Was the cure for cancer inside us all along?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science saying…
In a way, yes.
A global research team from Harvard Medical School, Dana Farber, and Maastricht University looked at the thymus. This organ trains immune cells.
They used algorithms from the CT scans of over three thousand cancer patients to score thymus health. Patients with healthier thymuses had better immunotherapy outcomes across several cancers! Healthy thymuses cut risk by 44%, even in typically stubborn tumors!
But the thymus is vulnerable to chemotherapy, radiation, and smoking!
Before prescribing medicines,we shouldn’t just focus on the tumor.
First we need to ask whether the immune system’s boot camp is still in fighting shape!
Reference: Bernatz, S., Prudente, V., Pai, S., Attermann, A. K., Di Federico, A., Rowan, A., … & Aerts, H. J. (2026). Thymic health and immunotherapy outcomes in patients with cancer. Nature, 1-9.