Promising new treatment for Leukemia?

[crossfire]

New leukemia treatment exceeds 'wildest expectations'
Doctors have treated only three leukemia patients, but the sensational results from a single shot could be one of the most significant advances in cancer research in decades. And it almost never happened.

In the research published Wednesday, doctors at the University of Pennsylvania say the

Comments

[mercystars]

Ngl, I got all misty-eyed reading this. *hopeful*

[intrikate88]

Not only were there only three patients, but I logged in to the NEJM site and skimmed the actual article- it's a case report on just one patient, so results may or may not have been characteristic.

I don't understand much of the basic science, but the report seems well-edited and internally consistent, just from the quick look I gave it. The importance of this is probably less that it OMG CURED CANCER and more that there is some basic science indicating a possible target for reducing destructive mechanisms, so now other similar studies will be able to get funding and demonstrate higher-powered and more generizable results.

It's a start, anyway.

[cheez_ball]

This. And I can't help but be reminded of the adenovirus gene therapy trial deaths (this is the first article that popped up on google about it: http://www.thelabrat.com/review/genetherapydeath.shtml) when that particular candidate treatment was applied to a larger patient pool.

It's a start. And I hope it lives up to the promise and hype.

[intrikate88]

Ohhh hey that's the disease my cousin died of and my other cousin has! Interesting. But yeah, that's basically the thing with very small studies or single case reports- you never know what they have (diagnosed or undiagnosed) that might be affecting the results. I look forward to seeing future studies in larger populations. And you can bet they are examining the hell out of this guy to see what might have led to his recovery.

[fenris_lorsrai]

They might have done animal testing previously, or in some earlier version of this process, but this is outside my area so it looks like they went direct from lab to humans. I suspect the denial for funding seems to be that they skipped animal testing and went straight to humans, which most funding agencies would be really really wary of. That's pretty well lawsuit waiting to happen in many investors eyes.

[widgets101]

I think NCI and the pharma companies turned it down because of the risk factor. Mucking around with the immune system is always risky - and in fact the NEJM report states that the patient described in that report had some fairly nasty potentially life threatening side effects, at least temporarily. He is still presumably at increased risk for infection since the treatment seems to have wiped out not only the cancer but his normal B cells as well (or at least it had as of six months post treatment).

[keeperofthekeys]

Ah, this is why I left formulation science to study immunology

[crossfire]

Yeah, I didn't really understand that part. What would it mean to a person's immunity if they didn't have any more B-cells? Loosing immunity to things that you'd previously contracted/been immunized for?

Immunology is crazy cool but it is so far outside my area of study...

[keeperofthekeys]

You'd lose antibody response to pathogens, though your cell-based response, which is mediated by T-cells, would remain functional. So some memory response would still be accessible. You'd mostly have loss of pathogen targeting and especially clearance, but T-cells, NK cells, and dendritic cells can hold their own. I'm a little fuzzy as to the details beyond that; I'm primarily a T-cell person, not a B-cell person.

ita re: immunology, obviously :P. I do not regret my decision to change fields at all

[crossfire]

*is fascinated*

So this doesn't totally blow away someone's immune system, but it does poke a pretty big hole in it?

My partner's mother died of leukemia, so there's an aspect of personal interest here too.

Your job must be so much more interesting than mine. (And that's saying something because my job is pretty engaging.)