UNBELIEVABLE!! THE CURE FOR CANCER IS FINALLY HERE!
As I suffed through the net today I found
something extremely awesome.
A Revolutionary Treatment That Could Stop Cancer
From Ever Coming Back!
This is close to becoming widely available,
scientists said yesterday. Dubbed a living drug’, it will act in a similar way
to a vaccine, by being constantly alert for the disease returning.
T-CELL IMMUNOTHERAPY hit headlines last year when
British baby, Layla Richards became one of the first people in the world to be
given the treatment, which is made from the BODY’S OWN CELLS.
Now, two landmark studies have revealed the
therapy’s stunning potential.
One suggests it will last for at least 14 years in
the body, raising the tantalising prospect of a permanent cure for cancer. In
the other, 94% of terminally ill patients saw the disease vanish completely.
The extraordinary results seen in the so-called "liquid" cancers such as Leukaemia rather than those that form solid Tumours ,
are ‘unprecedented in medicine’, the world’s biggest science conference heard.
Researcher Chiara Bonini said: ‘This really is a
revolution.’
The treatment is created from T-cells – White
Blood Cells that normally fight off Viruses and Bacteria are removed from the
patient and genetically tweaked to recognise and attack their cancer.
The genetically-modified cells are then grown in
their millions in a lab before being infused back into the patient, where they
hunt down and destroy the cancer cells. Scientists around the world are perfecting
the technique, and a series of trials have shown it to have remarkable
potential.
Some of the most exciting results come from the
San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, where doctors gave ten patients
infusions of T-cells and watched how long they lasted in the body. One type of
T-cell survived for 14 years, the conference of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science heard.
Dr. Bonini said these cells may last for life. If
they were also genetically engineered to hunt out and destroy cancer, they
would patrol the body year after year and stop it from ever returning.
She likened the Therapy to a Vaccine that gives
protection for life against an infection, adding: ‘T-cells are a living drug
and they have the potential to persist in our body for our whole lives. Our
findings have profound implications for the design of T-cell-based Immunotherapies.’
Dr. Bonini said patients were ‘very close’ to the
first treatments becoming widely available.
Professor Daniel Davis, a Manchester University
expert on the immune system, described the study as an important advance.
He said: ‘The implication is that infusing
genetically-modified versions of these particular T-cells could provide a
long-lasting immune response. Immunotherapy has great potential to
revolutionise cancer treatments and this study shows which type of T-cells
might be especially useful to manipulate.’
A second study, also presented at the conference
in Washington DC, reinforced the potential of T-cell immunotherapy.
When scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer
Research Centre in Seattle gave genetically-modified T-cells to leukaemia
patients with months to live, the cancer disappeared in 94 per cent of cases.
Patients with other blood cancers saw response rates of greater than 80 per
cent, with more than half experiencing complete remission.
Researcher Dr. Stanley Riddell said: "These are
patients that have failed [every other treatment]"
Most patients in our trial would be projected to
have two to five months to live. This is extraordinary… unprecedented in
medicine to get response rates in this range in these very advanced patients.
We have a long way to go. The response is not
always durable, some of these patients do relapse … but the early data is
unprecedented.’
Professor Dirk Busch, a T-cell researcher at the
Technical University of Munich, said: ‘We have now for the first time
genetically engineered T-cells in patients.
A couple of years ago, nobody would have expected
that they would work so nicely, that they would survive so nicely. That opens
the door for getting more creative and making better cells.’
The treatment is not without its challenges,
including side-effects that can be severe and even fatal. Success so far has
been in Leukaemia and other ‘liquid’ cancers, rather than prostate, breast and
other Tumours that form Lumps.
Getting T-cells deep inside solid Tumours will be
difficult. Cost is also an issue, as the treatment is tailored to individual
patients.
Cancer Research UK’s Dr. Kat Arney said it was an
‘exciting prospect’. She stressed that it ‘doesn’t yet work for all patients …
we still need more results from more trials … but there’s a lot of hope this
type of therapy could save lives. Like a vaccine that protects for life.
