Imagine a day when doctors will be able to “coach” the patients cells to fight cancer. For a few patients such treatment is already a reality.
Leukocytes are extracted from patients blood, and “taught” in the laboratory to memorize the cells that cause cancer. When re-injected into the body, the “T cells” go hunting and destroy cancerous tumors.
Experts hope that, in 5 to 10 years, the experimental treatment can be done on large scale.
Tests on nine patients with advanced melanoma
Last week, U.S. scientists from the Cancer Institute reported outcomes they had from nine patients suffering from one of the most aggressive forms of cancer, advanced melanoma, which had spread from skin to other body areas.
The experimental treatment did not stop the spread of cancer in all patients. In one patient the cancer stopped spreading, and after two years from treatment’s start, it didn’t show up any longer in tests results.
The study is on an early stage and the therapy will be needed to be applied to a larger number of patients.
“The T cells inform the immune system that the body develops cancer cells which have to be destroyed”, the researchers explained how the therapy works for the Science Translational Medicine publication.
The experts added that the next step will be that this technique be combined with other therapies which can increase the number and effectiveness of T cells.