Quantcast
ZME Science
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
    Menu
    Natural Sciences
    Health
    History & Humanities
    Space & Astronomy
    Technology
    Culture
    Resources
    Natural Sciences

    Physics

    • Matter and Energy
    • Quantum Mechanics
    • Thermodynamics

    Chemistry

    • Periodic Table
    • Applied Chemistry
    • Materials
    • Physical Chemistry

    Biology

    • Anatomy
    • Biochemistry
    • Ecology
    • Genetics
    • Microbiology
    • Plants and Fungi

    Geology and Paleontology

    • Planet Earth
    • Earth Dynamics
    • Rocks and Minerals
    • Volcanoes
    • Dinosaurs
    • Fossils

    Animals

    • Mammals
    • Birds
    • Fish
    • Reptiles
    • Amphibians
    • Invertebrates
    • Pets
    • Conservation
    • Animals Facts

    Climate and Weather

    • Climate Change
    • Weather and Atmosphere

    Geography

    Mathematics

    Health
    • Drugs
    • Diseases and Conditions
    • Human Body
    • Mind and Brain
    • Food and Nutrition
    • Wellness
    History & Humanities
    • Anthropology
    • Archaeology
    • Economics
    • History
    • People
    • Sociology
    Space & Astronomy
    • The Solar System
    • The Sun
    • The Moon
    • Planets
    • Asteroids, Meteors and Comets
    • Astronomy
    • Astrophysics
    • Cosmology
    • Exoplanets and Alien Life
    • Spaceflight and Exploration
    Technology
    • Computer Science & IT
    • Engineering
    • Inventions
    • Sustainability
    • Renewable Energy
    • Green Living
    Culture
    • Culture and Society
    • Bizarre Stories
    • Lifestyle
    • Art and Music
    • Gaming
    • Books
    • Movies and Shows
    Resources
    • How To
    • Science Careers
    • Metascience
    • Fringe Science
    • Science Experiments
    • School and Study
    • Natural Sciences
    • Health
    • History and Humanities
    • Space & Astronomy
    • Culture
    • Technology
    • Resources
  • Reviews
  • More
    • Agriculture
    • Anthropology
    • Biology
    • Chemistry
    • Electronics
    • Geology
    • History
    • Mathematics
    • Nanotechnology
    • Economics
    • Paleontology
    • Physics
    • Psychology
    • Robotics
  • About Us
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

Home → Science → News

In a remarkable first, woman’s advanced breast cancer is eradicated

This is truly an exciting achievement.

Mihai Andrei by Mihai Andrei
June 4, 2018
in Health, News

Using a pioneering antibody technique, medical researchers have completely eliminated advanced breast cancer from a 49-year-old woman. Even after two years, she is still cancer-free. The treatment succeeded after all other conventional approaches failed.

The entire treatment was based on the woman’s own antibodies. Researchers first plucked a rare type of T-cells, custom-made by the immune system from inside the tumors. The problem with these cells is that they’re too few to help a patient on their own, so the team grew new copies of the cells in the lab, multiplying them dramatically over a period of few weeks, after which they were infused back into the patient.

The 49-year-old woman had been selected for the novel therapy after chemotherapy failed to stop a tumor in her right breast from growing. The tumor had also spread to her liver and other areas, which was one of the deciding factors for the doctors — she needed the immunotherapy. Thankfully, the results were extremely successful: the therapy completely wiped out the cancer cells, and two years later, doctors found no traces of cancerous cells inside her. This is the first time this approach has been this successful. With the same technique, researchers have also been able to shrink hard-to-treat tumors in six other patients with colon and cervical cancers according to Steven Rosenberg, chief of surgery at the National Cancer Institute where the therapy is being studied.

The results are even more impressive because breast cancers, like prostate and ovarian cancers, have relatively few mutations — which makes it much harder for the immune system to differentiate and attack them.

Immunotherapy isn’t necessarily a novel technique, but it generally provides wildly variable success rates. Professor Alan Melcher, an immunotherapy expert at The Institute of Cancer Research, said this “exciting” study showed “a remarkable success in terms of translating our basic biological understanding of how the immune system responds to cancer into a real treatment of real benefit for this particular woman”. However, it’s not certain that the technique will be equally effective for everybody who needs it — there’s a good chance the success rate might be much lower.

So for now, this is an extremely promising study, but it’s still just one case. It remains to be seen if results will carry on in a broader sample size. This approach is also complex and expensive, so it will still be a while before we can see it applied to a larger part of the population.

“This is an illustrative case report that highlights, once again, the power of immunotherapy,” said Dr Tom Misteli, director of the NCI’s Centre for Cancer Research. “If confirmed in a larger study, it promises to further extend the reach of this T-cell therapy to a broader spectrum of cancers.”

The results have been published in the journal Nature Medicine.

Was this helpful?


Thanks for your feedback!

Related posts:
  1. Vaccines work: only 15 polio cases in 2016. In 2020 it should be eradicated
  2. Tuberculosis could be eradicated by 2045 — if the world is willing to invest $2 bln./year
  3. Polio Type 3 eradicated globally
  4. Simple blood test predicts which breast cancer patient will have a relapse months in advance
  5. Touchy-feely AI can help detect breast cancer with 96% accuracy in early tests, a stunning result
Tags: immunotherapy

ADVERTISEMENT
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • More
  • About Us

© 2007-2021 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
    • Natural Sciences
    • Health
    • History and Humanities
    • Space & Astronomy
    • Culture
    • Technology
    • Resources
  • Reviews
  • More
    • Agriculture
    • Anthropology
    • Biology
    • Chemistry
    • Electronics
    • Geology
    • History
    • Mathematics
    • Nanotechnology
    • Economics
    • Paleontology
    • Physics
    • Psychology
    • Robotics
  • About Us
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

© 2007-2021 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

Don’t you want to get smarter every day?

YES, sign me up!

Over 35,000 subscribers can’t be wrong. Don’t worry, we never spam. By signing up you agree to our privacy policy.

✕
ZME Science News

FREE
VIEW