Doctors successfully treat two babies with leukemia using gene-edited immune cells

by Guest Sat Jan 28, 2017 3:34 am

In a study out this week in the journal Science Translational Medicine, a group of British doctors reported that they had successfully “cured” two infants of the blood cancer leukemia using a treatment that involves genetically modified immune cells from a donor.

The study was incredibly small—just two babies—and the infants have only been free of leukemia for 16 and 18 months. Technically, that’s not long enough to say they are cured. Declaring someone who previously had cancer as “cured” usually doesn’t happen until that person has been free of the disease for a few years, at least. But what’s significant about this study is that it combines a promising, novel approach—CAR T cell therapy—with a relatively new gene-editing technique called TALENS, which enables the direct manipulation of genes within a person’s DNA.

In the cancer community, CAR T cell therapy is already touted as a promising immunotherapy treatment (which involves harnessing a person’s immune system to fight cancer on its own), but in preliminary trials, it’s had its limitations. Before it can become a universal cancer treatment, these kinks and logistics need to be worked out. And researchers in the field think that many of them can be solved using gene-editing techniques such as TALENS, the one used in this study, as well as CRISPR, supposedly the easiest such technique to date.

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/doctors-successfully-treat-two-babies-with-leukemia-using-gene-edited-immune-cells/

by eddie Sat Jan 28, 2017 10:20 am

That's great news! Let's hope it stays "working".
Fingers crossed.

by Guest Sat Jan 28, 2017 10:24 am

eddie wrote:That's great news! Let's hope it stays "working".
Fingers crossed.

Oh but I thought you said doctors are not needed anymore?

For fuck sake

by eddie Sat Jan 28, 2017 10:52 am

I said GP's.
Calm down.

by Guest Sat Jan 28, 2017 10:55 am

eddie wrote:I said GP's.
Calm down.

GP's are doctors.

For fuck sake, and you were once a teacher?

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Doctors successfully treat two babies with leukemia using gene-edited immune cells

Doctors successfully treat two babies with leukemia using gene-edited immune cells

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Re: Doctors successfully treat two babies with leukemia using gene-edited immune cells

Re: Doctors successfully treat two babies with leukemia using gene-edited immune cells

Re: Doctors successfully treat two babies with leukemia using gene-edited immune cells

Re: Doctors successfully treat two babies with leukemia using gene-edited immune cells