Revolutionary New Injection To Wipe Out Cancer Discovered

By R. Siva Kumar - 01 May '15 10:19AM
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Scientists reveal that a new antibody injection can "wipe out advanced cancer by rooting out and obliterating tumours," according to dailymail.

The breakthrough injection is hoped to improve the body's immune system in order to attack "melanoma, pancreatic, breast and lung cancer".

The research team at Stanford University School of Medicine is convinced that laboratory-engineered antibodies would eradicate not only primary tumours, but also remote metastases spreading through the body.

Mice that suffered from advanced cancers can be healed in just two months with an injection of tumour-marking antibodies taken from healthy rodents, according to thetimes.

Professor Edgar Engleman, senior author of the study, said: "The potency is impressive. You actually see tumour eradication."

What marks out the new research is the fact that other treatments only treat specific cancers, whereas his treatment can heal a wide range of solid tumours.

The process is the same as that which makes animals' bodies to reject organ transplants. In such instances, antibodies or molecules detecting "foreign substances" in the body stoke the immune system.

They bind themselves to proteins from any foreign body, or tumour and by using the signalling cells and alert T-cells, they act like the immune system's protection. The T-cells, upon encountering the foreign body, would attack and destroy it.

The antibodies were taken from mice found to be resistant to the cancers by the researchers. "They then injected these antibodies, along with chemicals that activated signalling cells, known as dendritic cells, into cancerous mice," according to dailymail.

The mice mounted an immune response and were found to remain cancer-free for more than a year.

Once primed to recognise the cancerous tissue, the T-cells would multiply and not only attack the tumour, but hunt down any metastatic cells travelling through the body.

Dr Yaron Carmi, the lead author, discovered both antibodies and the signalling dendritic cells that are both crucial for tumour elimination.

"Within hours after injection, these tumour cells are already coated with antibodies," he said.

"Dr Carmi was able to show that this combination therapy was extraordinary powerful," said Professor Engleman. Pretty much we could eliminate any cancer."

The report was published in the journal 'Nature'.

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