‘Leap forward’ in tailored cancer medicine
People with untreatable cancers have had their immune system redesigned to attack their own tumours.
The experimental study involved only 16 patients, but has been called a “leap forward” and a “powerful” demonstration of the potential of such technology.
Each person had a treatment developed just for them, which targeted the specific weak spots in their tumour.
It is too early to fully assess the therapy’s effectiveness and is expensive and time-consuming.The work focuses on a part of the immune system called T-cells, which patrol the body and inspect other cells for problems.
They use proteins – called receptors – to effectively sniff out signs of infection or deviant cells that have become cancerous.
Cancers can be tricky for T-cells to spot. A virus is distinctly different to the human body, but cancers are more subtle because they are a corrupted version of our own cells.
The idea of the therapy is to boost levels of these cancer-spotting T-cells. It has to be tailored to each patient as each tumour is unique.