Can immune cell therapy be the breakthrough in cancer treatment?

[Math Is Hard]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/06/18/scicanc118.xml

A cancer patient has made a full recovery after being injected with billions of his own immune cells in the first case of its kind, doctors have disclosed.

The 52-year-old, who was suffering from advanced skin cancer, was free from tumours within eight weeks of undergoing the procedure.

After two years he is still free from the disease which had spread to his lymph nodes and one of his lungs.

Doctors took cells from the man's own defence system that were found to attack the cancer cells best, cloned them and injected back into his body, in a process known as "immunotherapy".

Experts said that the case could mark a landmark in the treatment of cancer.

This is pretty exciting news.

Dr Rosenberg told The Daily Telegraph the new work is an "interesting study that helps to confirm the effectiveness of cell transfer immunotherapy for treating cancer patients. We have now treated 93 patients with metastatic melanoma using their own anti-tumour cells with response rates up to 72 per cent. Mark Origer remains disease free now over three years after treatment."

I wonder how they define "response" in response rate.

 

[Astronuc]

That is exciting. I hope it becomes an alternative to the radiation and chemo that folks have to go through.

I imagine though that it works for certain cancers, and may be not for others. Nevertheless, it is an exciting break through.

 

[~christina~]

That is great. At least it's not chemo where you kill cells at random, and people loose their hair. I find this very interesting. I just wonder why it's not on national tv.

 

[waht]

If the body can be made to fight off cancer by itself that would transcend all the cures.