'Amazing' new cancer treatment coming to Seattle

[n2doc]

By THERON ZAHN, KOMO NEWS
Published 05:32 p.m., Sunday, August 14, 2011

A revolutionary new treatment that's shown amazing results in trials against leukemia is being called the biggest breakhrough in cancer research in decades.

It could show a new way to cure many cancers in the future -- and that treatment soon could be available for tests in the Seattle area, according to doctors here.
"This is a major event in the field," says Dr. Michael Jensen of the Seattle Children's Research Institute.

Doctors at the University of Pennsylvania took blood from a leukemia patient, removed the T-cells, then introduced a harmless, modified form of HIV.

"So now they can attack cancer cells mostly by expressing a Velcro-like molecule on their surface, so when they bump up against a cancer cell they stick, and they think it's an infected cell, and they attack it," Dr. Jensen says.
The treatment has only been used on three patients with a specific kind of leukemia. Two are now cancer-free, and the third is in remission.


Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/komo/article/Amazing-new-cancer-treatment-coming-to-Seattle-1992473.php