Cancer researchers could be on the verge of a major breakthrough after “extraordinary” results from trials with modified white blood cells.
The potential cancer treatment calls for the white blood cells to be modified and made to target specific diseases.
And so far, researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle say, the results have been nothing short of breathtaking.
In one trial involving victims of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, 94 percent of test subjects reported that their symptoms vanished completely following treatment with the modified blood cells, called T-cells.
Then, in another trial, 80 percent of participants with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma also said they improved with the treatment. More than half ended up symptom-free.
“The early data is unprecedented,” lead researcher Stanley Riddell told fellow physicians over the weekend at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, DC.
Riddell could barely contain his enthusiasm over the results attained so far.
“This is unprecedented in medicine, to be honest, to get response rates in this range in these very advanced patients,” Riddell said.
Riddell’s team removed T-cells from patients and tagged them with “receptor” molecules targeting their specific form of cancer before infusing the cells back into their bodies.
Those targeting molecules, known as chimeric antigen receptors, or CARs, were produced from genetically engineered and specially bred mice.
Once those molecules attached to T-cells, they appeared to destroy the shield that cancer cells use to protect themselves from the body’s own immune system, researchers said.
The treatment is still considered a last-ditch measure and can carry devastating side effects, the researchers conceded.
Seven patients in the trials required intensive care after suffering an immune reaction known as cytokine release syndrome. Two of those seven patients died.
Still, Riddell said he’s hopeful that researchers are inching closer to the medical world’s holy grail.
“I think immunotherapy has finally made it to a pillar of cancer therapy,” Riddell said. But, he cautioned: “Much like chemotherapy and radiotherapy, it’s not going to be a save-all.”