Chronic Lymphocytic LeukemiaWIKIMEDIA COMMONS, ED UTHMAN
Researchers have kept cancer at bay in three patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia by genetically engineering the patients’ own T-cells to recognize leukemia cell antigens, then kill the cancer cells. The approach, which is described today (August 9) in two papers in the New England Journal of Medicine and Science Translational Medicine, could potentially be developed to fight not just leukemia, but other cancers as well.
“This is the touchdown that I think the field’s been looking for,” said Donald Kohn, a pediatric gene therapist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in the research. “It’s a really spectacular clinical response to have patients with unresponsive, end-stage disease have complete remission without a lot of toxicity.”
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is ...
