MONDAY, June 30 (HealthDay News) -- A clinical trial will
examine whether a new cancer treatment is as effective in humans as
it's proven to be in mice, say researchers at Wake Forest
University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.
The treatment involves transfusing white blood cells called
granulocytes from healthy young donors -- whose immune systems
produce cells with high levels of cancer-fighting activity -- into
patients with advanced cancer.
A similar treatment using white blood cells from
cancer-resistant mice cured 100 percent of lab mice with advanced
cancer.
"In mice, we've been able to eradicate even highly aggressive
forms of malignancy with extremely large tumors. Hopefully, we will
see the same results in humans. Our laboratory studies indicate
that this cancer-fighting ability is even stronger in healthy
humans," lead researcher Zheng Cui, associate professor of
pathology, said in a prepare statement.
The researchers will select 100 healthy donors, age 50 or
younger, who have white blood cells with high cancer-killing
activities. The recipients will included 22 patients with solid
tumors that aren't responding to conventional therapy.
"If the study is effective, it would be another arrow in the
quiver of treatments aimed at cancer," co-researcher Dr. Mark
Willingham, a professor of pathology, said in a prepared statement.
"It is based on 10 years of work since the cancer-resistant mouse
was first discovered."
This phase II study is designed to determine whether cancer
patients can tolerate a sufficient amount of transfused
granulocytes for treatment. After three months, the patients will
be evaluated to determine whether the treatment provided clear
clinical benefits.
Details of the study were presented June 28 at the Understanding
Aging conference in Los Angeles. If this trial proves successful,
the researchers will then look at whether this treatment is best
suited for treating certain types of cancer.
More information
For more on cancer treatments, visit the
National Cancer Institute.
