Can cloned cells cure cancer? - June 19, 2008
A man has been cured of skin cancer after injections of five billion clones of his own immune cells, according to a mass of media coverage. This is one of those “whoa” moments, both in an ‘amazing’ way and a ‘not so fast’ way.
Cassian Yee, of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and colleagues in the US, took a type of white blood cell called CD4 T Cells from their patient; selected ones that target his melanoma; grew loads of them; and put them back in the patient (research paper in the NEJM). No tumours were found in the man two years after treatment, despite previous cancers being detected in his body.
“We were surprised by the anti-tumor effect of these CD4 T cells and its duration of response,” says Yee (press release). “For this patient we were successful, but we would need to confirm the effectiveness of therapy in a larger study.”
The Wall Street Journal says the finding is a ‘surprising result’ but also the “latest hopeful finding from the 30-year-old field of ‘adoptive immunotherapy’”. Despite promising research in the 80s, says the paper, actual successful cancer treatments have been slow to materialise (subscription required for WSJ).
Bloomberg says eight other patients have had the treatment and although the severe form of cancer being treated normally kills in a year it has stopped spreading in some subjects. It’s still too early to tell if anyone will improve as dramatically as the patient detailed in the NEJM though.
Here in the UK, the BBC quotes Karol Sikora, cancer expert at Imperial College in London, as saying, “I think we will be able to harness the power of the immune system. Eventually we will learn how to control cancer, in other words we will suppress it. Patients will live with their cancer, and die with their cancer, but not of their cancer - it will be like diabetes today.”
The Daily Telegraph quotes Peter Johnson, Cancer Research UK’s chief clinician, who says, “This is another interesting demonstration of the huge power of the immune system to fight some types of cancer. Although the technique is complex and difficult to use for all but a few patients, the principle that someone's own immune cells can be expanded and made to work in this way is very encouraging for the work that Cancer Research UK and others are carrying out.”
In a column running with the article the paper’s science editor Roger Highfield warns “Immunotherapy could still be closer to a fluke than cure.”
Comments
These above-referred interesting news, about cloned immunological cells, efficacious in treatmet of cancer, are summarized in Karol Sikora's, cancer expert at Imperial College in London,statement: “I think we will be able to harness the power of the immune system. Eventually we will learn how to control cancer, in other words we will suppress it. Patients will live with their cancer, and die with their cancer, but not of their cancer - it will be like diabetes today”.
From the above remarks, I'dd like to underscore the knowledge they convey to us, corroborating Oncological Terrain, I discovered a lot of years ago. According to my theory of Oncological Terrain, exclusively individuals involved by an inherited impairment of the complex psycho-neuro-endocrine-immunological system, I illustrated in earlier papers and books, can be involved by malignancy (www.semeioticabiofisica.it, Oncological Terrain andBibliography). Interestingly,this Oncological Predisposition, inherited through mother as mitochondrial cytopathy I termed Congenital Acidosic Enzyme-Metabolic Histangiopathy, in some, BUT not all, cases is associated with related Congenital Oncological Real Risk in well-defined system, and bedside recognized rapidly in a quantitative way by means of a stethoscope: such as oncological risk is based on microvessel remodelling, characterized by newborn-pathological, typeI, subtype a),i.e., ONCOLOGICAL, Endoarteriolar Blocking Devices, localized notoriously in small artry, according to Hammersen (ibidem). In conclusion,first of all, Oncological Terrain,and then OT-dependent Inherited Oncological Real Risk, represent, the demarcation line, which divides people all around the world in two parts: on the one hand, those who can be involved by malignancy, and, on the other hand, the individuals who will never suffer from cancer, in spite of oncological environmental oncological Risk Factors.Only one cittion: . Stagnaro Sergio. Mitochondrial Bed-Side Evaluation: a new Way in the War against Cancer (21 December 2005). Cancer Cell International http://www.cancerci.com/content/5/1/34/comments#218502
Posted by: Sergio Stagnaro MD | June 22, 2008 01:36 PM
This therapy does look promising. However, it is very impractical due to the large amount of patient specific manipulation required.
Also, only one of nine patients responded.
Another therapy had Phase 2 clinical trial results presented at ASCO earlier in the month which showed much better results, with a similar low level of side effects, and is completely practical coming in an off the shelf vial.
This is called Oncovex and has given 6 complete responses (ie disease iradications, as per the one in the New England Journal paper) of 43 patients in which its been tested, with six others achieving a partial response, also by an immunlogical mechanism (in part).
However, as yet the data has not been published, other than presentation at ASCO, and so is pretty low profile at the moment.
It is much more promising than the T cell approach as it gives a higher rate of response and is completely practical.
Unlike the T cell approach, it will also start a Phase 3 clinical trial soon, and thus should rapidly become available for patients more broadly.
I suggest that those who are interested in melanoma look into this further, as the results are stunning and better than anything I've seen before. I was at ASCO, and I saw.
A google search for Oncovex will soon take you to the results
Posted by: Paul Hill | June 22, 2008 04:25 PM
So im assuming this is some form of modified gene therapy, i think one of the key factors here is the injection of his own immune cells if there would have been any other persons cells the individual may have suffered an immune reacttion or would have failed to resposd all together. I think we can all remeber the tragedy of Jesse Gelsinger
Posted by: john | June 28, 2008 01:18 AM