T-cells booster may stop cancer return

CANCER patients should be given thorough immunotherapy before surgery to remove tumours, a new trial in the United States suggests.

A study on lung cancer patients found that activating the immune system can prompt tumours to spread friendly T-cells around the body, significantly reducing the chance of the cancer returning after surgery.

Scientists have hailed the “cancer interception” strategy as a “game-changer” that could potentially halt the disease in its tracks.

Teams are now setting out to trial the method on patients with blood, colon and ovarian cancer. Oncologists administered nivolumab, the immunotherapy drug, over several weeks to 21 patients with non-small-cell lung cancer prior to surgery.

They found the approach was not only safe, but that 45 per cent of the patients responded so well there was little evidence of the cancer remaining upon follow-up examinations. Overall, recurrence-free survival at 18 months was 73 per cent compared with a 50 per cent current clinical average.

Dr Sung Poblete, of Stand Up To Cancer, a US charity, said: “That T-cells, activated by immunotherapy prior to surgery, can intercept rogue tumour cells throughout the body and prevent the cancer from recurring may be a game-changer.”

The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.