Cancer-Killing Immune Cell
To fight a disease as devastating as cancer, we need creative and revolutionary solutions. Sometimes those solutions reveal themselves by accident, as in the case of British scientists discovering a new immune cell. (1)
Cardiff University researchers found a new type of T-cell while investigating blood from a blood bank in Wales. They were looking for bacteria-fighting immune cells when they stumbled upon this discovery. (1)
T-cells are white blood cells that are critical to the functions of the immune system. They are essential for adaptive immunity, which allows the immune system to respond to specific pathogens. Additionally, T-cells are responsible for seeking out and destroying intruding pathogens in the body. (2)
The newly discovered immune cells have a receptor that scientists haven’t seen before. This receptor attaches to many human cancers and kills them. And it leaves healthy cells alone. (1)
Attacks Most Types of Cancer
When they studied the T-cells in the laboratory, scientists found that their receptor could kill many different types of cancer, including: (1, 3)
- lung
- skin
- blood
- colon
- breast
- bone
- prostate
- ovarian
- kidney
- cervical
These immune cells and their receptors are a mind-blowing discovery. There are already therapies that use immune cells to fight cancer. But they’re only available for some types of leukemia. Such treatment does not yet exist for solid tumors, which are responsible for most cancers. (1)
In these therapies for leukemia, T-cells are extracted from a patient. They are then modified to express receptors that will attach to molecules on the surface of cancer cells. In the lab, the cells are grown and multiplied. Then, they get injected back into the patient’s bloodstream to do the job of killing their cancer. (1)
Because of the nature of the new immune cell and the specific molecules it attaches to, a treatment using T-cells could work for most cancers. And people could share the immune cells with others. Much like blood banks, there could be banks of these immune cells available to treat cancer for anyone who needed them. (1)
Mind-Blowing Discovery
Professor Andrew Sewell is an expert in T-cells from Cardiff University’s School of Medicine and a lead author on the study. He told The Telegraph that it is “highly unusual” to find a cell that can fight this many different types of cancer. “This was a serendipitous finding, nobody knew this cell existed,” he said. (1)
Sewell believes that the discovery could lead to a universal therapy for cancer. “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,” he explained. (1)
Sewell’s hope is backed up by the results of laboratory studies. Researchers altered skin cancer patients’ own T-cells to use the new receptor. They found that the immune cells killed the patient’s cancer cells. Scientists were also able to use the altered T-cells on other patients’ cancer cells. They learned that the T-cells killed those cancer cells too. (1, 3)
These findings are extremely exciting for the future of cancer treatment. The therapy will need to pass more laboratory safety testing. And Sewell believes that human trials on patients with cancer can begin by November 2020. (1)
