Dr. [Steven] Rosenberg, Dr. Carl H. June…and Dr. Michel Sadelain…have been at the forefront of this research for decades,…[bringing] to fruition a daring therapy that few colleagues believed would work. Now, versions of the therapy for a limited number of blood cancers are nearing approval by federal regulators, and could reach the market as early as next year.
The technique, known as cell therapy, gives each patient an individualized and souped-up version of their own immune system, one that “works better than nature made it,” as Dr. June puts it.
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This is an unusual pharmaceutical — a drug that is alive and can multiply once inside the body. Dr. June calls these cells “serial killers.” A single one can destroy up to 100,000 cancer cells.
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[C]ell therapy has produced complete remissions in some patients who were out of treatment options, stirring excitement among doctors and patients and setting off a race among companies to bring the treatments to market.
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[However,] cell therapy is likely to be frightfully expensive…And the therapy itself can be arduous.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: Setting the Body’s ‘Serial Killers’ Loose on Cancer