Patient's own white blood cells genetically reprogrammed to attack leukemia cells. A small medical study out today is generating a huge amount of excitement among cancer researchers. For the first time, scientists have been able to successfully target cancer cells by using cells from a patient's own immune system. CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook reports that that the small study produced what researchers call "proof of concept." It's a whole new way, of treating cancer. Researchers engineered a patient's own immune cells to treat a type of blood cancer called chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL. CLL affects nearly 15,000 men and women a year and more than 4,000 will die from it. For years, researchers have been trying to figure out a way to kill cancer cells using a patient's own immune system. On Wednesday, Dr. Carl June and his team at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine claimed a victory in that effort. "This is a form of what I would call ultimate personal therapy. That's a wave of the future," June says. CLL is a type of blood cancer. The only known cure is a bone marrow transplant, which is risky, and only effective in about half of patients. In this new approach, scientists used the patient's own T-cells - white blood cells that help fight infections such as bacteria. Scientists remove the T-cells, genetically reprogram them to attack leukemia cells, and inject them back into the patient. Researchers treated three patients with CLL. In two, the cancer cells were completely gone six months after the immune therapy. "The clinical doctor involved in this was astonished and so were the patients that a single infusion of the cells could have such pronounced anti-tumor effects in the patients," Dr. June says. This new treatment does have significant side-effects. The most common is a very bad flu-like illness, but so far all 3 patients - who had incurable leukemia and no other options - are doing well about a year after treatment. This form of treatment is like giving a scent to a bloodhound. These T-cells have been given the scent of the leukemia cells and go hunt them down. The hope is to give T-cells the scent of colon cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer and train them go out and kill all kinds of cancers.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/08/10/eveningnews/main20090911.shtml
Update - “ARIAD (ARIA) Announces Initial Clinical Proof-of-Concept for Cancer Treatment,” Oct 1, 2012 http://www.streetinsider.com/FDA/ARIAD+(ARIA)+Announces+Initial+Clinical+Proof-of-Concept+for+Cancer+Treatment,+AP26113/7759036.html
PARP Drugs and an Old Antiseptic May Be Miracle Cures for Cancer !
Early Uses of Acriflavine for Control of Infection. Acriflavine’s long history as a brown or orange powdery topical antiseptic treatment for wounds goes all the way back to WW’s I and II. Dr. Paul Ehrlich (a German scientist in the fields of hematology, immunology, and chemotherapy, and Nobel laureate - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ehrlich) was performing experiments in its use in the late nineteenth century. Then a student of Ehrlich's, Carl Browning, introduced Acriflavine as a wound antiseptics in base hospitals serving the Western Front in WW I. In the post-war era Browning’s work lead to the widespread use of Proflavine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proflavine) and Quinacrine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinacrine), both Acriflavine derivatives, by the Allies in eastern theatres of World War II in the absence of quinine from Japanese-held Java. Today Acriflavine is widely used as a preventative and treatment in fish ponds for the control of Oodinium (Velvet) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oodinium), a fish disease (also called gold dust disease) found in freshwater and marine fish. http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/34/2/187
Caution!!! - please consult a doctor or pharmacist as Acriflavine may be required as part of a chemotherapy cocktail or used topically but not orally. Buy acriflavine through Amazon @
http://www.amazon.com/Fish-Vet-Acriflavine-MS-ACRIFLAVINE-MS-OZ/dp/B000O3EI3I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=miscellaneous&qid=1257682688&sr=8-1 or a list of two other providers @ http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/acriflavine
June 25, 2009 - PARP Drugs
The battle against cancer seems to be on the verge of a major step forward, according to a study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. The success of a new class of drugs – PARP (poly-ADP-ribose polymerase) inhibitors – in destroying the disease points to a new direction in the development of anticancer drugs. A PARP inhibitor is designed to stop cancer cells from performing genetic self-repair and that in turn destroys the cell. These drugs appear to have the ability to selectively kill cancer cells without harming normal cells and patients in a clinical trial report few side effects.
“The findings of our study provide very promising evidence that the potent PARP inhibitors may be useful for treating breast cancers,” said Andrew Tutt, director of the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Unit at Kings College in London. Currently, the vaccine only can be given to half of those with melanoma because it has to match a patient's tissue type. “However, this drug is in a very early stage of development, and additional clinical trials are necessary.” Dr. Tutt, whose work was included in the NEJM report, presented his success with breast cancer patients earlier this month at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. That small, Phase II international multi-center study found that more than a third of women with advanced breast cancer that persisted despite prior treatment experienced tumor shrinkage after receiving the investigational PARP inhibitor. Several individuals that participated in the study and saw their cancers shrink were interviewed by NBC news for a report that appeared on the evening news with Brian Williams on June 24, 2009.
http://seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Health/2009/20090625-PARP-Drugs.htm
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