Hum Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 Scientists are reporting the first clear success with a new approach for treating leukemia ? turning the patients' own blood cells into assassins that hunt and destroy their cancer cells. They've only done it in three patients so far, but the results were striking: Two appear cancer-free up to a year after treatment, and the third patient is improved but still has some cancer. Scientists are already preparing to try the same gene therapy technique for other kinds of cancer. "It worked great. We were surprised it worked as well as it did," said Dr. Carl June, a gene therapy expert at the University of Pennsylvania. "We're just a year out now. We need to find out how long these remissions last." He led the study, published Wednesday by two journals, New England Journal of Medicine and Science Translational Medicine. Scientists have been working for years to find ways to boost the immune system's ability to fight cancer. Earlier attempts at genetically modifying bloodstream soldiers called T-cells have had limited success; the modified cells didn't reproduce well and quickly disappeared. June and his colleagues made changes to the technique, using a novel carrier to deliver the new genes into the T-cells and a signaling mechanism telling the cells to kill and multiply. That resulted in armies of "serial killer" cells that targeted cancer cells, destroyed them, and went on to kill new cancer as it emerged. It was known that T-cells attack viruses that way, but this is the first time it's been done against cancer, June said. For the experiment, blood was taken from each patient and T-cells removed. After they were altered in a lab, millions of the cells were returned to the patient in three infusions. more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charisma Veteran Posted August 11, 2011 Veteran Share Posted August 11, 2011 Oooh, and they just target and go after cancer cells? No collateral damage like with radiation/chemo/every other treatment? Awesome. That is the best way to do it, harnessing the power of the way nature already does things. T-cells do "learn" their enemies, which is why we develop immunities. It's just a matter of "teaching them" about this particular kind. This is exciting stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
micro Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 I really hope this is a definitive way to fight cancer. Hopefully we develop full immunities! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
still1 Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 wow that's really a good news if it works... few people I know who have cancer had to go through the painful treatment... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tagerd0g Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 I just hope the T-cells don't mutate and start attacking other types of cells. That would be bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c3ntury Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 One step closer :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Angry Bunny Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 While this is great news, and I hope it remains successful and doesn't mutate I can't help but think of Resident Evil with all the talk of the T-Cells... I don't wanna be zombie... :unsure: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hum Posted August 11, 2011 Author Share Posted August 11, 2011 I just hope the T-cells don't mutate and start attacking other types of cells. That would be bad. The main complication seems to be that this technique also destroys some other infection-fighting blood cells; so far the patients have been getting monthly treatments for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charisma Veteran Posted August 11, 2011 Veteran Share Posted August 11, 2011 While this is great news, and I hope it remains successful and doesn't mutate I can't help but think of Resident Evil with all the talk of the T-Cells... I don't wanna be zombie... :unsure: But at least you'll be a zombie that won't get cancer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCordRm Posted August 12, 2011 Share Posted August 12, 2011 http://richardmccord.com/?page_id=261 I didn't post my view in my article, but I have to tell you guys... I'm pretty excited. I just MIGHT be around when the technology hits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted August 12, 2011 Share Posted August 12, 2011 This approach to cancer therapy is just flat revolutionary. Even if it's necessary to get repeat doses every year or so it's a vadt improvement over brute force methods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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