How Could My Body's Natural Killer Cells Stop Killing Myeloma Cells? 

In a myeloma study led by Dr. Frances Seymour with the Leeds Teaching Hospital, she and her team found that one of the reasons a multiple myeloma patient's own natural killer (NK) cells stop killing myeloma cells is because they become exhausted. Had the NK cells not become exhausted, they would have kept killing myeloma cells. 

Immune system cell exhaustion caused by excess oxidative stress and reversed with antioxidants 

Dr. Santosha Vardhaha and his team with the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) found that cancer-killing immune system cells (like NK cells) get exhausted because excess oxidative stress builds up in the cell as it attacks a cancer cell. 

Over time, the oxidative stress becomes too much, and the immune system cell’s mitochondria become “exhausted”, stopping the cell from working to kill cancer cells or multiply. 

The body's excess oxidative stress is also influenced by the intake of high oxidative stress-causing environmental substances found here (like herbicides, refined sugar, meats cured with nitrates, etc). 

Dr. Vardhaha found that this cellular exhaustion is reversible by administering antioxidants. After increasing antioxidants, the cancer-killing immune system cells’ fatigue was reversed, and they could continue killing cancer cells and multiply to circulate the body.

MSKCC is now implementing Dr. Vardhaha’s research into a clinical trial for high-risk lymphoma patients (read more here). We hope to implement similar treatment strategies through clinical trials for myeloma patients. 

See here for a list of high-antioxidant foods and spices patients can include in their meals. 

Next Steps 

Through clinical trials with the support of doctors, researchers, fund donors, and myeloma patients, we can help implement these facts into treatment action for patients. 

Further research is needed to review items such as helping ensure a myeloma patient already has enough NK cells to empower with antioxidants or if multiplying the NK cells in a lab and then infusing them into the patient in combination with antioxidants is needed to kill myeloma cells.

Clinical trials will also help determine the appropriate dose of antioxidants needed to reverse NK cell fatigue. 

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