Designer Immune Cells Made From Patients’ Own Blood Spurs Cancer Remission

Two leukemia patients were cancer- free in three weeks after being treated with genetically engineered versions of their own immune cells, an early finding that could lead to a new approach for treating the blood cancer.

The trial of three patients showed that researchers could reprogram enough infection-fighting T-cells to wipe out malignant cells. The procedure also stimulated cells that defend against the cancer’s return, according to papers published today in Science Translational Medicine and the New England Journal of Medicine.

The results may point researchers to a new way to cure chronic lymphocytic leukemia, researchers said. The only method for achieving remission is a bone marrow transplant, which carries a 20 percent death risk and offers a cure half the time, said Carl June, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and a study author.