Dr. Zheng Cui, an associate professor of cancer biology and pathology at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, has conducted experiments that shows immune cells from some people can be almost 50 times more effective in fighting cancer than in others.
Dr. Cui, whose work is highlighted in this week's New Scientist magazine, has previously shown cells from mice found to be immune to cancer can be used to cure ordinary mice with tumors.
The work raises the prospect of using cancer-killing immune system cells called granulocytes from donors to significantly boost a cancer patient's ability to fight their disease and potentially cure them. The federal Food and Drug Administration last week permitted Dr. Cui to inject super-strength granulocytes into 22 patients.
"Our hope is that this could be a cure. Our pre-clinical tests have been exceptionally successful," Dr. Cui said. "If this is half as effective in humans as it is in mice it could be that half of patients could be cured or at least given one to two years extra of high quality life." "The technology needed to do this already exists, so if it works in humans we could save a lot of lives, and we could be doing so within two years."
Source: telegraph.co.uk