Monday, November 28, 2011

New cancer treatment reprograms disease fighting capability

A tiny medical study out today is generating so much excitement among
cancer researchers. For the 1st time, scientists are actually capable of
successfully target cancer cells by making use of cells from your
patient's own disease fighting capability.

CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook reports that the small
study produced what researchers call "proof of concept. " That is a
completely new way, of treating cancer.

Researchers engineered a patient's own immune cells to take care of a
variety of blood cancer called chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL.

CLL affects nearly 15, 000 males and females annually plus more than 4,
000 will die from that.

For many years, researchers are actually racking your brains on ways to
kill cancer cells by using a patient's own disease fighting capability.
On Wednesday, Dr. Carl June great team on the University of Pennsylvania
School of Medicine claimed a victory because effort.

"This is a type of what I had call ultimate personal therapy. What a
wave into the future, " June says.

CLL is a variety of blood cancer. The sole known cure is actually a bone
marrow transplant, which can be risky, in support of effective in about
50 % of of patients.

In this particular new approach, scientists used the patient's own
T-cells - white blood cells that help fight infections like bacteria.
Scientists get rid of the T-cells, genetically reprogram those to attack
leukemia cells, and inject them back in the sufferer.

Researchers treated three patients with CLL. In two, the cancer cells
were completely gone half a year as soon as the immune therapy.

"The clinical doctor involved with this is astonished therefore were the
patients which a single infusion in the cells might have such pronounced
anti-tumor effects inside the patients, " Dr. June says.

This new treatment comes with significant side-effects. The most
frequent is definitely a bad flu-like illness, but to date all 3
patients - who had incurable leukemia with zero other choices - are
successful with regards to a year after treatment.

This kind of treatment is much like giving a scent into a bloodhound.
These T-cells are actually given the scent in the leukemia cells and go
hunt them down. The hope is always to give T-cells the scent of colon
cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer and train them head out and kill an
array of cancers.

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