Cure cancer with gene therapy

A group of American researchers successfully treated melanoma skin cancer by modifying the genes of white blood cells to attack the cancer.

Mr. Elias Zerhouni
(Photo: hopkinsmedicine.org)

Scientists at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health conducted this method on two different groups of patients, by using genes to pave the way for T cell receptors - ' killer cells ' - inject into the patient's modified lymphocytes to direct these cells to seek and destroy cancerous tumor cells.

In the first group, this measure failed. So they adjusted when testing in the second group by injecting in the most active cell phase patients. The test results were more positive, with 2/14 patients showing that the cancer had decreased, and they had not had it within 1 year. Furthermore, 1 month after the application of gene therapy, all patients in both groups continued to have a significant number of anti-cancer cells.

'These results show that for the first time gene therapy has been used successfully for cancer treatment,' said Elias Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health. ' We hope to apply this therapy not only to melanoma but also to other common cancers, such as lung cancer and breast cancer.'

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