Testing a jab to cure cancer

Patient trials are to begin on a new jab that has the potential to destroy cancers, even after they’ve started to spread to distant parts of the body.

In trials on mice, researchers found that by injecting minute amounts of two drugs directly into a tumour, they were able to reactivate, and strengthen, cancer-fighting T cells that had been switched off by the disease.

These cells then not only killed that tumour, but set to work identifying and destroying other cancer cells elsewhere in the body. In nine out of 10 cases, the mice were declared cancer free after being given the jab once – the others required two doses.

Professor Ronald Levy, from Stanford University in California said: “I don’t think there’s a limit to the type of tumour we could potentially treat, as long as it has been infiltrated by the immune system.”

The new clinical trial is expected to involve 15 patients with low-grade lymphoma. Other experts have described the results as promising, but cautioned that what works on rodents in labs may not necessarily work on people.