Testing breakthroughs to cure blood cancer

Only 3 patients have been cured in this way so far, but the results are extremely impressive: The two patients have cleared the cancer after one year of treatment, the third person has progressed, though not yet finished.

This is an initial success in new gene therapy for leukemia of the University of Pennsylvania (USA), published simultaneously in two major medical journals, the New England Journal of Medicine and Science Translational Medicine, yesterday.

"Therapy gives great results. We were surprised to see it so successful," said Dr. Carl June, an expert at the university. "We have just done one year. We need to find out how long the disease will last."

In the new technique, people turn the patient's red blood cells into "assassins" , specializing in hunting and destroying cancer cells.

Microscopic images provided by Dr. Carl June on August 10 show that T-cells (brown) attached to yellow beads are responsible for these cells dividing. Then, the golden beads are removed, the remaining pure T cells, ready to pass on to the cancer patient. (Photo: AP)

Years ago, scientists tried to find ways to increase the body's immune system to fight cancer. They tried to genetically modify the T cells - "bodyguards" of the body - but the modified cells did not reproduce and quickly disappeared.

Dr. June and his colleagues improved this technique, using a new carrier to implant new genes into T cells, then "signaling" so that these cells are capable of killing and cloning. Their targets are cancer cells.

Older T cells still kill viruses in this way, but this is the first time it has done so to cancer cells, June said.

The team described in detail the experiment on a 64-year-old patient:

There were no changes within 2 weeks, but then he started to get sick, chills, vomiting and fever. He and two other patients fell into the usual situation when a large number of cancer cells died at the same time - a sign that the gene therapy was working.

"It's like the worst flu in their life. But after that, everything was fine. They were fine, " June recalls.

The main complication for this technique is that it also destroys some other blood-resistant cells, so patients have to treat it monthly.

Other experts have assessed this as "quite impressive" findings, but also noted that the scale of the study is too small, only 3 people. It is important that they know the long-term effects of therapy.

After initial success with leukemia, the team prepared to perform on other types of cancer.