Tony Yang

7th Period
10/31/16
Independent Study: Track Hours
Source Number Letter: Source L
Citation: Brahmer, J. R., & Pardoll, D. M. (2013). Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors:
Making Immunotherapy a Reality for the Treatment of Lung Cancer. Cancer Immunology
Research, 1(2), 8591. http://doi.org/10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-13-0078
How did you find this source?: Through the use of Google Scholar
Intended audience: Other scientists studying in the field.
What arguments/topics does this source discuss?: Article discusses the use
of checkpoint inhibitors as a treatment for cancer. This article starts off by describing
background notions surrounding lung cancer. It then goes on to talk about the immune
resistance mechanisms of lung cancers. It then goes on to talk about how they are able
to suppress the immune system to allow them to survive and proliferate. Finally, the
article talks about the implications of CTLA-4 inhibitors and their clinical results in
allowing lung cancer to be fought through natural immune system mechanisms by
preventing cancer inhibition.
Minimum 3 quotes, paraphrases, summaries of source text that seem likely
to be helpful in future writing:
While the anti-CTLA-4 antibodies have not resulted in significant single-agent
responses, PD-1 checkpoint blockade with blocking antibodies targeted to either the
receptor or its major ligand, PD-L1, have resulted in significant single-agent activity in
advanced, heavily pretreated patients with NSCLC, in terms of OR, stable disease (SD),
and associated long-term survival. "
Results from the past 3 years have not only validated the clinical potential for
immunotherapy but also the sense that we are just scratching the surface. Lung cancer,
the number one cancer killer in the United States and worldwide, has been the frontier
for immunotherapy's leap beyond the melanoma and renal cancer and will continue to
provide vistas for future innovation in this burgeoning field.
In contrast with melanoma (25), ipilimumab, an anti-CTLA-4 blocking mAb has virtually
no effect as a single agent in lung cancer (26); however, it does seem to provide modest
benefit in NSCLC as well as small cell lung cancer (SCLC) when tested in combination
with chemotherapy
Reflection
This source was about 22 pages in very small font and was filled scientific terms and text
that was confusing in some areas. The text contained lots of detailed information and
took about 4 hours to read.

Source Number Letter: Source M

 Citation: Barbee, M. S., Ogunniyi, A., Horvat, T. Z., & Dang, T. O. (2015). Current
status and future directions of the immune checkpoint inhibitors ipilimumab,
pembrolizumab, and nivolumab in oncology. Annals of Pharmacotherapy, 49(8), 907937.
Source Validation: Source is published in the scientific journal Nature and
written by multiple PhD scientists.
How did you find this source?: Through the use of Google Scholar
Intended audience: Other scientists studying in the field.
What arguments/topics does this source discuss?: The article first discusses
the immune system and background information about how it functions. It then moves on
to talk about the immune response and how the immune system checkpoints work. The
article then moves on to talk about how cancer cells can invade the immune response
before transitioning to the function of checkpoint inhibitors. Next, the article talks about
CTLA-4, the receptor of the cytotoxic t-cell its chemical composition. Finally, it goes into
great detail about many experiments done and the results that have come out of them.
Minimum 3 quotes, paraphrases, summaries of source text that seem likely
to be helpful in future writing:
The immune system is important in preventing and controlling cancer.1 T-cells are a
major component of the immune response, and the process is regulated by a series of
costimulatory and inhibitory signals that serve as checkpoints. Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte
antigen-4 receptor (CTLA-4) and programmed death-1 receptor (PD-1) are 2 of the
many checkpoint receptors that regulate the immune response and can be targeted and
inhibited
Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) fall into a larger class of molecules, the biological
response modifiers (BRMs). BRMs include monoclonal antibodies, autologous cellular
immunotherapy, interferons, interleukins, colony stimulating factors, vaccines, and ICIs.
Manipulation of the immune system is not a new concept in the treatment of cancer:
interferons and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation have been utilized for decades.
The novel aspects of the ICIs are the drug targets and their ultimate pharmacodynamic
effect to stimulate the immune system.
Reflection
This source was about 34 pages and gave information not only over checkpoint
inhibitors but also went into detail about experiments conducted and the results of such
experiments. I then had to do more background research about such experiments which
made this article altogether take about 4 hours to read.

Reflection
After doing independent research once again, I was of course the only person that worked on
my track work. I read three scholarly articles this time instead of four as the first two articles that
I read were considerably longer than usual. The articles were published by phD professors and
researchers in various scientific fields. The articles that I read through took me about eight
hours collectively to read through and analyze as a whole. This time for my eight track hours I
focused heavily in doing more research into the use of checkpoint inhibitors. To start off, I
learned considerably more about how the immune system works and the function of both t-cells
and b-cells and how the are able to elicit a larger response to help fight off disease. I also
learned a considerable amount about how a cancer cell is able to evade such a immune
response through a process known as inhibition. All cancer cells that are able to evade immune
system detection have some way to inhibit the CTLA-4 receptor, which inherently disguises
them as normal body cells. Thus the function of a checkpoint inhibitor, is in turn to bind onto the
cancer cell antigen that is inhibiting CTLA-4. In doing so, this will prevent the subsequent
inhibition of the immune system and allow for the bodies natural inherently present defenses to
attack and destroy the cancerous tumors present inside of the human body. My mentor was
actually the one who introduced me to this as he described it as one of the hottest topics in
fighting cancer and allowing for the body to fight itself. He described to me a battle in patent
wars that are presently ongoing as companies all attempt to patent these checkpoint inhibitors
so that they can profit and seek sole ownership. This ongoing battle seems to be to be a great
hampering in intellecutal advancement and the good of human society as a whole. My mentor
described to me how this patent process drastically slows down the progress of subsequent
research and makes it so that different companies must pay steep and heavy prices in order for
any advancement or experiments to come out. He also told me that this method of curing
cancer has shown the most promise outside of traditional surgery and chemo/radiation therapy.
I was able to accomplish this research in the comfort of my own house on my comfy leather
chair in front of my desktop computer. All of the research that I did for these eight track hours
came over the course of a week period as I analyzed and carefully looked into the articles very
carefully. I chose to do independent research as I felt that it was the best option that I had to
accomplish my track work for capstone. Not only that, I really didnt have another feasible option
as a backup as there is no way I could do product creation and internships are not available to
me at the time.