Doctors hail amazing new therapy that kills off cancer
how long the symptom- free patients would remain in remission and more work had to be done before the technique could be widely used.
So far, it has been tried only on patients with “liquid” blood cancers. Scientists hope they will soon be able to run trials on patients with solid tumours.
In the most promising study, 35 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia were treated with receptor- modified T cells. Almost all went into remission.
During the tests seven patients were left in intensive care because of a serious side- effect caused by an overpowerful immune response called severe cytokine release syndrome. Two later died.
The research team are working on ways to reduce the risk of reaction.
‘ SEEK and dESTROY’ cEllS fighT TUMOURS
A CANCER vaccine is in sight after a new study discovered human cells can be programmed to keep the disease at bay.
Scientists have identified rare immune “stem memory” T cells that could be primed to seek and destroy cancers before they grow.
The cells would be removed from the body and genetically modified to attack tumour cells.
They would then be re- implanted to patrol the body, attacking tumour cells before they take hold.
Lead researcher Professor Chiara Bonini, from Milan University in Italy, said: “T cells are a living drug and have the potential to persist in our body for our whole lives. Imagine translating this to British experts have described the research results as “exciting.”
Dr Kat Arney, of Cancer Research UK, said: “Engineering a patient’s own immune cells to fight cancer is an exciting prospect, and the results from this relatively small study are a tantalising demonstration that this could help treat some people with blood cancers like leukaemia or lymphoma. The treatment comes cancer immunotherapy, to have memory T cells ready for cancer.”
Prof Bonini’s team studied 10 cancer patients who underwent bone marrow transplants and were infused with T cells that were tagged so they could be tracked.
Cells were still found to be circulating in the patients’ blood after 14 years.
The breakthrough was revealed at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington DC yesterday.
Immunologist Professor Daniel Davis of Manchester University said: “The implication is that genetically modified versions of T cells could provide a long- lasting immune response.” with a risk of potentially severe sideeffects and doesn’t yet work for all patients. So we still need more results from more trials – including those that Cancer Research UK is funding – to know for sure how well they work, and whether they can be used in other cancers too.
“But there’s a lot of hope that this type of therapy could save lives in the future.”