A new therapy which can retrain the immune system of our body to fight against cancer has made the health world excited when researchers found that more than 90 percent of terminally ill cancer patients recovered. BBC reported it on Feb 16, 2016.
Scientists took white blood cells (WBC) from leukaemia patients and put back after modifying them in the lab.
But they did not publish or review the data because it was said that two patients died because of extreme immune response. Experts mentioned the trail as exciting but still more steps have to be taken.
In Washington DC, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the news bubbled out. When all other treatments had failed and the patients had two to five months to live only, the therapy was used, said the lead scientist of the research. According to him, the early data is groundbreaking.
Scientists took out t-cells which are called killer cells from dozens of patients' immune system. The t-cells were genetically modified by the researchers to target acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
One cancer expert told that they are still in confusion about the result of the study because the data is unavailable.
Leukaemia is a malignant disorder of the haemopoietic tissues. Characteristically, it is associated with increased numbers of primary white cells present in the bone marrow.
There are two types of leukaemia: Acute type and Chronic type. Malignancy of haemopoietic progenitor cell is known as acute leukaemia. The malignant cell loses its ability to mature and differentiate. Next the cell proliferate uncontrollably and at last replace normal bone marrow elements.
On the other hand, Chronic leukaemia is a disorder of proliferation of cells which is unrestrained and excessive. This type of leukaemia occurs mainly in the age-range of 30-80 years. It is equally common in men and women.
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