Inoperable melanoma was cured by the patient's own immune cells
American scientists have managed to completely cure a patient with inoperable metastatic cancer with the help of his own immune cells. For two years of follow-up after therapy, the 55-year-old man did not show any signs of a tumor, New Scientist reports.
Researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, isolated an antitumor population of helper T-lymphocytes (CD4+ cells) from a patient with melanoma that metastasized to the inguinal lymph nodes and lungs. The culture of these cells recognizing the tumor protein NY-ESO-1 was grown in the laboratory for two months, after which five billion cells were simultaneously injected into the patient.
In two months, the grown lymphocytes completely freed the body from the tumor, the signs of which were not observed two years after treatment.
A group of researchers applied the new technique to eight more patients, but, according to Cassian Yee, the head of the work, it is too early to talk about the complete destruction of their tumors.
In addition, the new technique will not be able to help all patients with melanoma. It will be effective only in cases where malignant tumors have the same antigenic characteristics as the tumor of a recovered patient.