A unique patient who has survived the development of a dozen tumors could hold the key to curing cancer, a new study reveals.
Their review found that the individual is “programmed” to develop different forms of the disease after inheriting mutations in a gene from both parents. However, their immune system naturally generates a strong anti-inflammatory response that fights the growths. Knowing how it does this offers a “groundbreaking” hope of earlier disease diagnosis and new immunotherapy drugs.
The unnamed patient around the age of 40 has had 12 tumors, with at least five of them being malignant. The first developed during infancy, followed by others every few years. Each has been of a different type and in a different part of the body. The patient also has skin spots, the birth defect microcephaly which causes a smaller head and brain, and other alterations.
According to Malumbres, the study of this unique case opens up “a way to detect cells with tumor potential well in advance of clinical tests and diagnostic imaging. It also provides a novel way to stimulate the immune response to a cancerous process.”
