Can we train our bodies to fight cancer? To eliminate it completely as soon as it manifests? The answer might surprise you.
Many scientists are saying maybe, with a surprisingly large sector claiming yes, our bodies are capable of policing cancer and keeping us free of the insidious disease –Forever.
There’s a treatment in the works right now that could render human beings immune to many types of cancer. It involves entities called T-cells which exist in our bodies.
“T-cells are a living drug,” said Professor Chiara Bonini, lead researcher from the University of Milan in Italy. “And in particular, they have the potential to persist in our body for our whole lives.”
The idea is simple, in theory – genetically modify the T-cells to attack cancer.
“Imagine translating this to cancer immunotherapy,” Bonini said, “to have memory T-cells that remember the cancer and are ready for it when it comes back.”
The Studies
It’s still early in the trials, but scientists have experienced a lot of success so far. The tests have been conducted primarily on patients suffering with certain blood cancers, and the results have been staggeringly positive. In one test, 94% of participants saw their cancer symptoms vanish completely. In other tests, patients saw response rates higher than 80%, with a more than 50% remission rate.
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Researcher Stanley Riddel, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Washington State, said, “This is unprecedented in medicine, to be honest.” While speaking on behalf of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Riddel said, “This is living therapy.”
The Technique
Historically, T-cell therapy is uncommon because it comes with a high number of side effects. These can range from fever, to hypotension, to cytokine release syndrome –which can lead to death. But to date, the T-cell therapy tests have only been conducted on patients with no further recourse. Chemotherapy had been ineffective for all of those patients who participated in the trials, and this T-cell treatment was a last resort.
“These are in patients that have failed everything,” Riddel said. “Most of the patients in our trial would be projected to have two to five months to live.”
The technique involves the removal of immune cells – T-cells – from a patient’s body. These cells get tagged with receptor molecules which are designed to target specific cancers. Once tagged, the T-cells are infused back into the body and left to hunt down the cancer and eliminate it. It’s effective because, once the molecules are attached to the T-cells, the cancer becomes unable to defend itself against an attack.
Commenting on the study, British immunologist Professor Daniel Davis, from the University of Manchester, said, “These T-cells, the stem memory T-cells first identified in 2011, have stem-cell like properties and are thought to be important for long-lived immune responses.”
If researchers want to branch out beyond blood cancers, they’ll need to begin work on tumors and the effect T-cells have on them. There’s a lot of work left to do, but researchers are optimistic.
“Immunotherapy has great potential to revolutionize cancer treatment,” Davis said.
