Doctors kill skin cancer with cloned T-cells
WASHINGTON —
U.S. doctors have for the first time successfully treated a skin cancer patient with cells cloned from his own immune system, a study released Wednesday showed.
The ground-breaking treatment for advanced melanoma, or skin cancer, led to a long remission for the patient and used his own cloned infection-fighting T-cells, said doctor Cassian Yee, the lead author of the study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Yee and his associates from the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle removed CD4+ T-cells, a type of white blood cell, from a 52-year-old man whose melanoma had spread to a groin lymph node and to one of his lungs.
The melanoma was already well advanced and in stage four.
The T-cells which specifically fight melanoma were modified and expanded in the laboratory and some five billion cells were then infused into the patient, who received no other kind of treatment.
Two months later no tumors were found during scans of the patient’s organs. And he has been cancer free for two years, Yee said.
“We were surprised by the anti-tumor effect of these CD4 T cells and its duration of response,” Yee said. “For this patient we were successful, but we would need to confirm the effectiveness of therapy in a larger study.”
It was the first ever case to show that cloned cells from a patient’s own immune system can successful combat skin cancer. If further tests confirm the efficiency of the method, it could be used in some 25% of patients with late-stage skin cancer, the study said.
Using a patient’s own immune system to combat cancer, called immunotherapy, is a growing area of research that aims to develop less-toxic cancer treatments than standard chemotherapy and radiation.
Some 160,000 cases of melanoma are diagnosed around the world every year, particularly affecting white men living in very sunny regions.
Although it usually affects the skin, in rare cases it can also infect the eyes and intestines.
According to the World Health Organization, some 48,000 people die from melanoma every year.
AFP
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adaydream
I just lost a dear friend from pancreatic and liver cancers that started out melanomas. < :-)
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skipthesong
If I understand it correctly, only Anglo types are subject to server melanoma. I have a red headed friend who is constantly sun burnt! Hope he is n't going to get this.
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adaydream
skipthesong - I belong to a nudist resort and AANR. My friend who died was a member at one time. Come to find out, after he went home, he got into a tanning bed. I love the guy, but he was plain silly. We try to stress suntan lotion and see a doctor periodically if your getting new moles at all. < :-)
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RedMeatKoolAid
Quite an amazing story. And precisely the sort of revolutionary breakthrough that socializing out medical system will stymy.
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skipthesong
adaydream: May I ask a question? What is it with people, especially Anglos who have light skin, knowing laying in the sun too long can lead to this cancer?
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