Dr Stephen Beers

Tenovus Research Laboratory
Southampton General Hospital
Southampton

Turning the power of the immune system on cancer

Dr Stephen Beers is working on immunotherapy - a type of treatment that encourages the body's own immune system to fight cancer. He is investigating how to make these treatments more effective. Dr Beers is based in Southampton, which is one of the UK’s leading centres for immunotherapy research.

Some types of immunotherapy are already being used to treat cancer patients, and other treatments that stimulate the immune system are being developed around the world. But in some cases the immune system doesn’t respond properly, and the cancer keeps growing.

Dr Beers’ team is studying how immune cells called macrophages are involved in the body’s response to immunotherapy, and how they can be enhanced to target tumours more effectively.

Immunotherapy could become a very powerful treatment for cancer over the next decade, and Dr Beers’ work is an important part of a global research effort in this area.