Novel strategy for cancer treatment uses patient's own blood

In a strange case, a 52-year-old British man with an advanced case of melanoma (the most lethal form of skin cancer) was successfully cured using only his own blood.

British experts are calling this an "exciting advance" in what is known as cancer immunotherapy, a treatment set that uses the body's own immune system to fight disease.

The man was being treated in the United States, where some of his white blood cells were extracted and cultivated in the laboratory. The cells are called CD4+ T Cells, and are very effective at fighting infection. When a sufficient number of CD4+T Cells were created, they were reinfused with the patient where they aggressively attacked the cancer.

Cassian Yee, who carried out the research, was optimistic but unwilling to extrapolate the effectiveness of this treatment to others - she said, "We were surprised by the anti-tumour effect of these CD4+ T cells and its duration of response. For this patient we were successful, but we would need to confirm the effectiveness of the therapy in a larger study."

The study was published in The New England Journal of Medicine, which describes them in a commentary as a "novel strategy" which leads us in a "feasible new direction" for treatment.

Louis Weiner, the author of the commentary and director of the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Centre in Washington, said that although it was too early to be sure of the significance of this one case, the probability was that it will give a substantial boost to the technique of cancer immunotherapy. "I suspect that if the destination is not yet at hand, it is in sight. The endgame has begun," he said.

Immunotherapy is still a new area of research, which may prove to be useful in other types of cancer, including malignant mesothelioma.

Professor Peter Johnson, Cancer Research UK's chief clinician and a consultant in Southampton, said: "Although the technique is complex and difficult to use for all but a few patients, the principle that someone's own immune cells can be made to work in this way is very encouraging."

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