Leukemia Tumors: Amazing Breakthrough in the Treatment

This microscopy image provided by Dr. Carl June on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2011 shows immune system T-cells, center, binding to beads which cause the cells to divide. The beads, depicted in yellow, are later removed, leaving pure T-cells which are then ready for infusion to the cancer patients.

U.S. researchers say they've been able to modify a patient's immune system T cells, turning them into “serial killer” cells which zero in on cancer and obliterate it.

It’s being called a breakthrough in the treatment of a form of leukemia, a hard to treat and usually fatal blood cancer.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is marked by a slow increase in immune system white blood cells, called B lymphocytes. These B cells, as they're known, are manufactured by the bone marrow, the spongy tissue inside bones that also manufactures red blood cells.

Eventually, the healthy blood cells are crowded out by the proliferating B cells, the patient experiences bone marrow failure, and - without a bone marrow transplant - dies.

A transplant of healthy bone marrow from a donor has been the only treatment and potential cure for chronic lymphocytic leukemia. But it is very difficult to find a match and many people with CLL die while waiting. Even with a transplant, experts say only about half of CLL patients survive the procedure.

Three CLL patients who had run out of treatment options were selected for an experiment at the University of Pennsylvania. Researchers genetically engineered another one of their immune system cells, the T lymphocytes, to attack cancerous B cells.

Carl June, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the school’s Abramson Cancer Center, was the study’s lead author.

“The actual trial exceeded our wildest outcome and imagination actually," says Carl June, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, who was the study’s lead author, "because what we found is all three patients have had a remarkable anti-tumor response and that literally pounds of leukemia have been eradicated in all three patients.”

Two of the three CLL patients had a complete remission of their disease and there was a significant improvement in the third.

source: voanews