 |  |  | | | IMMUNOTHERAPY - HYPE OF HOPE? | | | | |
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Release Date: 20th April 2002
The study of immunology - harnessing the power of the body's immune system - has advanced more than any other biomedical discipline over the last 20 years, according to some of the countries leading cancer scientists.
Speaking at the Leukaemia Research Annual Meeting at Keele University (20th April 2002), the experts will say that harnessing the immune system is one of the great challenges facing modern medicine.
"At first glance, the immune system seems so complicated and awe-inspiring that is defies explanation," says Leukaemia Research scientific director, Dr David Grant. "But we are now in a position where we know a lot of vital information about the way it works. It's now time to translate this knowledge in to benefits for patients."
The immune system is truly an 'army inside', waging war to defend all comers. Human armies use uniform and flags which act as surface markers and enable them to distinguish friend from foe. Our immune system is no different and all cells within the body carry combinations of proteins which are almost unique to that individual.
Understanding these molecules and the immune response to them is central to bone marrow transplantation and to the treatment of cancers like leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma.
The expert speakers will explain how they are teaching the immune system to recognize leukaemia cells and how successful immunotherapy would remove the need for toxic anti-cancer drugs that are currently used as frontline treatment.
Dr Marc Turner, from the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, will tell 250 conference delegates how his pioneering work is moving into clinical trials. "We are looking to use the unique skills of cells called dendritic cells to treat people with acute myeloid leukaemia," he explains.
Scientists have long recognised these cells, but their importance has only recently been appreciated. They are the key messengers or 'sentinels' in the immune system alerting other immune cells to the presence of infection or cancer. They are scattered in most tissues on the look out for invaders, and ready to engage white blood cells called lymphocytes into combat.
"Around 70% of patients with AML will go into remission after intensive chemotherapy. Sadly, half of all younger patients and the majority of elderly patients will relapse and die within a few years," says Dr Turner.
This is due to the existence of minute numbers of residual leukaemia cells - that are undetectable and remain after treatment. It is believed that somehow they have been able to evade immune recognition and destruction.
"But our laboratory work has shown that we can teach the immune system to recognize these leukaemia cells by introducing them to the dendritic cell. Once the dendritic cell recognizes this we can prime the lymphocytes to kill their own leukaemia cells," he explains.
Dr Turner is recruiting 12 patients who are in remission to take part and trial of this new therapy. When a patient is diagnosed, leukaemia cells are taken from their blood and then introduced to the dendritic cells. These dendritic cells will then be injected back into the patients who will be monitored for immune response.
Leukaemia Research has invested well over £3.5 million so far in developing the power of the immune system to destroy cancer cells because it offers patient specific treatments with reduced side effects.
"Work such as Dr Turner's underlines the vital importance of long-term research in the production of new and desperately needed treatments," says Dr David Grant.
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