New Leukemia report with cures NEJM

[fuelair]

I do not plan to make this a habit but Derek Lowe (In the Pipeline: http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2011/08/12/a_startlingly_good_leukemia_trial.php ) has another hit, though not directly his: This time a process using the victim of leukemia's own (modified) T-cells
has two subjects cancer free (after ca. ten months) and one not free but the cancer inactive. No failures in trial. It looks good, Derek gives the details some might want or need to know!!

Not humorous, better than that!!!

 

[fuelair]

Since it has views, sending it around again.

 

[Tatyana]

The cure isn't new, I am quite positive I read about this when I was taking a pathobiology class nearly six to eight years ago.

The issue with T-cell lymphoma is that after it undergoes a clonal expansion to deal with an infection, there is some sort of issue in apoptosis, so it is not a cancer of uncontrolled growth, just one where the cells for get to die.

Does it count when the treatment is first discovered or when it has gone through about eight years of the preliminary clinical trials?

Either way, it is a triumph for molecular biology.

 

[fuelair]

Understanding that I am NOT a physician, my understanding (from the column) is that the leukemia is B-cell, not T-cell and they are using modified T-cells to fight it, not fighting a T-cell cancer.?

 

[ThunderChunky]

^Yes, that is correct. This downside to this therapy is that all B cells are targeted and not just the cancerous ones, so the patients end up with a B cell deficiency.

 

[fuelair]

One last time on the circuit....

 

[Ziggurat]