TWO men originally given six months to live are clear of cancer after treatment with genetically engineered immune cells.
In a preliminary study of 17 participants with advanced melanoma, the pair were declared clinically free of the disease one year after receiving the treatment, which transformed normal white blood cells into “tumour hunters”.
When the body successfully detects melanoma, its immune cells produce receptor proteins on their surface that pick up on the presence of a chemical marker called MART-1 on the surface of the tumour cells. So Steven Rosenberg, chief of surgery at the US National Cancer Institute in…
