Tests of a potential cancer therapy tested on terminally ill patients is being hailed as offering ‘extraordinary results’, by leading scientists.
According to Sky News, more than nine out of ten participants in the study with a severe form of leukaemia saw their symptoms completely vanish, while four out of five patients with other blood cancers responded positively to the treatment.
More than half of these patients remained symptom free post trial.
Lead Professor Stanley Riddell, from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, US, added that the trial therapy was tested on patients with a prognosis of just two to five months to live:
“This is extraordinary. This is unprecedented in medicine to be honest, to get response rates in this range in these very advanced patients.”
The treatment saw sciences remove immune cells called T-cells from patients, tagging them with molecules that target cancer, and putting them back into the body in an infusion.
The molecules, taken from specially bred genetically engineered mice, reduced the ability of the cancer to shield itself from the body’s natural immune system.
The study cautioned that although the results are massively promising, there is no indication for how long the symptom-free patients would remain in remission.
