Is this a miracle cancer vaccine? Scientists praise breakthrough treatment in Blood Cancer

Search and destroy: T-cells can be taught to identify and then kill cancer cells

 

The extraordinary success in recent treatment of cancer with new vaccines  is believed proved believe could be a ‘game-changer’ in the battle against the disease.

 

One of the recipient of this new vaccine, an American woman  who was given just weeks to live was cleared of advanced blood cancer. She is still alive three years later, and her doctor says she is not a one-off.

 

British researchers are now working on a related approach that teach the body’s immune system to identify cancer cells, allowing patients to be primed to destroy cancer.

Both methods involve taking T-cells, which fight infection, and giving them the ability to recognise a special tag on the surface of cancer cells, called the WT1 protein.

 

The research is being carried out on patients with leukaemia. But the scientists hope their vaccines will eventually be used to fight many types of cancer, including that of breast, bowel and prostate – whose cells tend to have WT1 on their surfaces.

There is even talk of a ‘universal cancer vaccine’ among some scientists, although the researchers themselves believe that is unlikely.

'IDENTIFYING' MARKER ON THE CANCER CELL IS KEY

The treatments aim to help the immune system seek out and destroy cancer cells

They do this by giving T-cells the ability to detect a key marker called WT1

 

WT1 is a protein found on the surface of the cells of many types of cancer

T-cells are a type of white blood cell, which fight infections or threats

 

An infusion of donor stem cells – which can transform into T-cells – may also be used to boost the immune system

Treatment involves taking bone marrow from a donor and splitting it into stem cells and T-cells.

 

The patient receives the stem cells straight away but the T-cells are sensitised to WT1 in the lab by exposing them to fragments of the protein. The T-cells are then given to the patient in a series of injections over several months.

 

Although ‘Most people have immune cells which can’t recognise cancer cells, which is one of the major problems with tackling the disease,’ Dr Morris explained. ‘We have genetically engineered patients’ immune cells so they develop receptors for the WT1 protein, making them much better at recognising leukaemia cells.’

 

One patient has already received an infusion containing genetically engineered’ T-cells and there are others whose cells are being prepared. The DNA is transferred into the T-cells using a ‘dummy’ virus that does not cause an infection. These then provide the blueprint to build the WT1 receptor.

Photo Credit: Alamy. Source: Mailonline