Gene therapy – another rapidly growing field of medicine (where genes are used to alter human cells properties) solves CLL, also known as chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The next in line are Ovarian cancer and Brain cancer.
The so called CART19-cell infusion cured 3 different men in a matter of months after battling cancer for decades. Now it is obvious a very small sample size and it is correct to cautiosly wait the long-term results, BUT it is inevitable that this sort of approach would bring desired results.
A round of deserved applause to Michael Kalos, Bruce L. Levine, David L. Porter, Sharyn Katz, Stephan A. Grupp, Adam Bagg and Carl H. June (team leader).
Some early results could be seen on the graphics below:
| Patient (UPN) |
Tissue | Time point |
Amount of DNA in PCR (ng) |
Cell equivalents | Total productive sequence reads |
Total productive unique B cell clonotypes |
CLL IGH@ CDR3 clone reads |
Clone frequency (% productives) |
| 01 | PB | Preinfusion | 1000 | 158,730 | 184,786 | 24 | 184,256 | 99.713 |
| 01 | PB | Day −1 | 1000 | 158,730 | 408,579 | 48 | 407,592 | 99.758 |
| 01 | PB | Day +28 | 1000 | 158,730 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 |
| 01 | PB | Day +176 | 500 | 79,365 | 285,305 | 7,362 | 0 | 0.000 |
| 01 | BM | Day +28 | 1000 | 158,730 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 |
| 01 | BM | Day +176 | 1000 | 158,730 | 202,535 | 4,451 | 0 | 0.000 |
| 03 | PB | Preinfusion | 2000 | 317,460 | 22,074,912 | 58,234 | 19,948,508 | 90.367 |
| 03 | PB | Day −1 | 386 | 61,270 | 1,385,340 | 4,544 | 1,231,018 | 88.860 |
| 03 | PB | Day +31 | 1000 | 158,730 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 |
| 03 | PB | Day +176 | 2000 | 317,460 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 |
| 03 | BM | Day +31 | 1750 | 277,778 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 |
| 03 | BM | Day +176 | 1000 | 158,730 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 |
See the sight of a cancer cells overrun by gene modified T-cells (although it looks like ice-cream scoops – I never liked chocolate ice cream):
There is a quick explanatory article of the experiments here: http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/ap/us_med_gene_therapy_leukemia
Be sure to read the research articles at:
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1103849#t=articleTop
http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/3/95/95ra73.full
UPDATE: A good example of how hard is trying to solve a known problem by known method and how the known problem requires new way of thinking is the comparison between the gene therapy treatment and the treatment by a modified designer drug, which is very problematic to say the least. (For the latter se this article: http://uk.health.lifestyle.yahoo.net/modified-ecstasy-could-be-used-to-treat-cancer.htm )
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