Immune cell which kills most cancers discovered by accident by British scientists in major breakthrough

Authored by telegraph.co.uk and submitted by noelcowardspeaksout
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A new type of immune cell which kills most cancers has been discovered by accident by British scientists, in a finding which could herald a major breakthrough in treatment.

Researchers at Cardiff University were analysing blood from a bank in Wales, looking for immune cells that could fight bacteria, when they found an entirely new type of T-cell.

That new immune cell carries a never-before-seen receptor which acts like a grappling hook, latching on to most human cancers, while ignoring healthy cells.

In laboratory studies, immune cells equipped with the new receptor were shown to kill lung, skin, blood, colon, breast, bone, prostate, ovarian, kidney and cervical cancer.

Professor Andrew Sewell, lead author on the study and an expert in T-cells from Cardiff University’s School of Medicine, said it was “highly unusual” to find a cell that had broad cancer-fighting therapies, and raised the prospect of a universal therapy.

“This was a serendipitous finding, nobody knew this cell existed,” Prof Sewell told The Telegraph.

“Our finding raises the prospect of a ‘one-size-fits-all’ cancer treatment, a single type of T-cell that could be capable of destroying many different types of cancers across the population. Previously nobody believed this could be possible.”

wafflepiezz on January 20th, 2020 at 18:47 UTC »

”In contrast, the new cell attaches to a molecule on cancer cells called MR1, which does not vary in humans.

It means that not only would the treatment work for most cancers, but it could be shared between people, raising the possibility that banks of the special immune cells could be created for instant ‘off-the-shelf’ treatment in future.”

Wow, imagine in the future where cancer can be treated with “off the shelf” treatment and medications that you can purchase at your nearest pharmacies. That would be incredible.

I really hope that this passes laboratory testings early and will be mass produced. We see many treatments with ‘potential’ all the time, but this breakthrough seems different.

va_wanderer on January 20th, 2020 at 18:22 UTC »

This is the stuff you hear all the time when you've got a family member with cancer, and 99.999% of the time it turns out to be a dead end.

Then again, once in a blue moon you end up with something like Taxol, and that's how cancer treatments have progressed over the decades. Innumerable failures and a few successes that save thousands of lives.

noelcowardspeaksout on January 20th, 2020 at 17:44 UTC »

Highlights:

Close to being authorised for use - The team says human trials on terminally ill patients could begin as early as November if the new treatment passes further laboratory safety testing.

Cheap and swift - ‘universal’ T-cell medicine, mitigating against the tremendous costs associated with the identification, generation and manufacture of personalised T-cells.

Hits the common cancers - immune cells equipped with the new receptor were shown to kill lung, skin, blood, colon, breast, bone, prostate, ovarian, kidney and cervical cancer.