Cancer sufferers could be treated with immune cells from donors resistant to the diseases, according to scientists.Dr Zheng Cui, of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina, has shown that immune cells from some people may effectively fight cancer in others.
Using blood samples from more than a hundred people, immune cells called granulocytes, which are already used to boost people’s immune systems after they are depleted by chemotherapy, were mixed with cervical cancer cells.
The immune cells from one individual killed 97 per cent of cancer cells in 24 hours, while those from another healthy donor only killed about 2 per cent.
“Our hope is that this could be a cure,” said Dr Cui. “Our preclinical tests have been exceptionally successful. If this is half as effective in humans as it is in mice it could be that half of patients could be cured or at least given one to two years extra of high-quality life.
“The technology needed to do this already exists, so if it works in humans we could save a lot of lives, and we could be doing so within two years.”
Source: Times Online
Tags: Cure | Cancer
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