Readers this is some of the grandest news I’ve heard reported in many a year, it was reported by ABC News.Com that there could be a major medical breakthrough in the fight against a deadly form of leukemia cancer. In a clinical trial a patients` own immune cells were altered to fight cancer cells of this deadly disease and to destroy them.
The ABC News.Com report stated that a patient no longer has cancer and is considered cancer-free after eight days of this type treatment. ABC’s Chief Medical Editor Dr. Richard Besser elaborates more about this discovery in the following paragraphs.
He stated he’s aware there is loads of complicated science connected with this and it may be difficult to explain how it works; and it’s incredible how the use of a patient’s own immune system can be used to fight cancer.
Besser stated they used five patients that had untreatable cancer; and they used a virus to inject genetic material into the patient’s own white cells; thus, turning them into cancer fighters. These cancer fighters traveled into and through the body and destroyed all the cancer cells; and the patients that received the injections all went into remission. The three patients that had bone marrow transplants are doing great too.
He indicated that at the time they were not aware that one of their own sound men, David Aponte, was one of their patients until they spent time with him. Besser said, "It’s incredible."
Besser also said he had spoken to Aponte since he had the treatment and that he is giving credit to the treatment for saving his life. Aponte had gone through a lot of chemotherapy during the summer and he believed he was in remission but it suddenly returned.
The report indicated that Aponte believed there was no other recourse for him and he opted for the treatment, allowing them to inject the cells into his body and eight days later not a single cancer cell was found. He’s had a bone marrow transplant and he’s doing well.
Besser stated Aponte is getting chemo but he’s on his way to recovery. He has past the 100-day mark the last time they communicated with him. Besser said, "They’re very excited."
The report indicated that Besser said, "I remember when a similar story was reported on ‘World News’ by Diane about a precious girl, Emma, describing how other cancers and other people can be affected."
Emma was the rist person treated for this type of leukemia in December; and she is reportedly in total remission and she is doing great.
Besser said, "Depending on what is injected into these cells you possibly could target them to go after all different types of cancers. The theory is that maybe it could be changed to go directly after such other diseases as prostate cancer or breast cancer."
He also indicated that it’s a never-ending approach; and the study was a safety study that needs to move forward by doing it to more and more people and for researchers to figure out how they can possibly tame the reaction? This treatment is a method of creating a battle in a person’s own body with their own cells attacking the cancer cells to perceive which one wins.
Readers this could possibly be a cancer treatment that could totally omit bone marrow transplants for people according to Besser. He stated that researchers who conducted this study are thinking in these terms too.
The world will be a much healthier place if this discovery turns out to be a continung method for treating this type of cancer; and wouldn’t it be even greater if the patients` own immune cells could attack and kill the cancer cells for all types of cancers too.
Barbara Kasey Smith is the writer of this article and it is based on a report by ABC News.Com.
Source:
ABC News.Com