18
Feb 2016
New cancer treatment brings positive news
A new treatment has prompted excitement after it was reported that over 90% of terminally ill patients went into remission.
The therapy took place at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle, and was performed on patients for whom all other treatment had failed and who had two to five months to live.
The treatment, that stimulates the body’s immune system to fight cancer cells, was tested on leukaemia patients, with white blood cells being taken from the patients, modified in the laboratory, and then put back.
Professor Stanley Riddell, lead scientist at the centre, said “Essentially what this process does is, it genetically reprograms the T-cell to seek out and recognise and destroy the patient’s tumour cells.
“[The patients] were really at the end of the line in terms of treatment options and yet a single dose of this therapy put more than ninety per cent of these patients in complete remission where we can’t detect any of these leukaemia cells.”
Cancer Research UK’s Dr Alan Worsley said that although the news was immensely exciting, “this is a baby step”.
He went on to say “We’ve been working for a while using this type of technology, genetically engineering cells. So far it’s really shown some promise in this type of blood cancer.
“We should say that in most cases standard treatment for blood cancer is quite effective, so this is for those rare patients where that hasn’t worked.
“The real challenge now is how do we get this to work for other cancers, how do we get it to work for what’s known as solid cancers, cancers in the tissue?”
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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.
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