Found, a cell that can kill string of cancers

A CANCER breakthrough has raised hopes of a ‘one size-fits-all’ treatment for the disease.

Scientists have discovered an immune cell which can kill prostate, breast, lung and other cancer cells, while ignoring healthy cells.

The next frontier in treatment is ‘immunotherapy’, enlisting the body’s own immune system of killer ‘T-cells’ to attack cancer.

But tailoring this treatment to each individual’s unique immune system – and the specific type of cancer they have – is expensive and time-consuming.

So the discovery of a T-cell which can attack a wide range of cancers in any person has the potential to bring the wonders of immunology to many more patients.

Researchers at Cardiff University were searching through Welsh blood donations for an immune cell that could fight bacteria when they accidentally found a T- cell which recognises a molecule present on the surface of a wide range of cancer cells.

It is also found on healthy cells but, remarkably, it seems to distinguish these and kills only cancer cells. Now, after safety testing, clinical trials in cancer patients are set to begin in November.

Professor Andrew Sewell, the study’s lead author, said it was ‘highly unusual’ to find a T- cell ‘receptor’ (TCR) able to latch on to such a broad range of cancer cells. He added: ‘Current TCR based therapies can only be used in a minority of patients with a minority of cancers. It raises the prospect of a “one- size-fits-all” cancer treatment.’

T-cells are at the centre of immunotherapy – with a common type involving taking a patient’s T-cells out of their blood and engineering them to better detect cancer. A virus is used to ‘infect’ the immune cells with genes which help them better recognise a specific molecule on the cancer cells. They are then grown in large numbers and put back to do their job.

The new T-cell may allow many different cancers to be treated because it attaches to a molecule on cancer cells, called MR1, which is common in all people. When the cell was injected into mice, researchers say it showed ‘encouraging’ cancer-clearing results.

The treatment provides hope for thousands of cancer patients. Current T-cell immunotherapy, such as CAR-T, only works for a limited number of cancers, principally leukaemia, and are not generally successful against solid tumours.

The study was published in the journal Nature Immunology.