Fighting Cancer From Within

By MICHAEL D. LEMONICK

Using the body's immune system against cancer is a good idea, but it has never worked very well. That's because the specialized T cells that go after tumors aren't all that numerous or hardy. But a new technique announced in Science last week may overcome both problems. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute took T cells and tumor cells from 13 patients with advanced melanoma, an especially aggressive cancer, and sensitized the Tcells to recognize and attack the tumor cells. Then they cultured the Tcells to multiply their number and injected them back into the patients along with a T-cell growth stimulator. But first the researchers suppressed the cancer patients' immune systems, giving the injected T cells room to thrive.

The result: six patients saw their tumors shrink 50% or more, and four had at least some shrinkage. For all, the side effects were relatively minor. The study was too small to be definitive, but the idea is promising. In principle, the technique could be extended to other cancers and infectious diseases--maybe even to AIDS. --By Michael D. Lemonick Cancer