04/29/2016.
Immunotherapy may be effective against blood cancer, according to a study by Dr. Stanley Riddell, an oncologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, United States.
Immunotherapy against leukemia
Presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement for Science (AAAS), the work of Dr. Stanley Riddell could well revolutionize medicine in the fight against leukemia. His team has indeed developed a new treatment, which uses a very specific technique: immunotherapy.
Immunotherapy aims to stimulate the cells of the patient’s immune system to turn against cancer cells. The advantage, compared to chemotherapy, is that a single injection is sufficient. This technique has already had several successes against cancer. Local immunotherapy is practiced in particular in the context of bladder cancer and is very effective.
Eradicate cancer cells, in the context of blood cancer, through immunotherapy ? It will certainly soon be possible. This is in any case what Dr. Stanley Riddell revealed, presenting the excellent results of a clinical trial that he launched at the Fred Hutchinson center in Seattle.
A very promising clinical trial
An immunotherapy trial was launched in 2013 on 29 patients with blood cancer. 27 are now in prolonged remission, that is, they no longer have any trace of cancer cells in their bone marrow. What wears 93% success rate.
The success of this clinical trial proves that immunotherapy is ” a pillar of anti-cancer therapy “, said Dr. Stanley Riddell. ” Like chemotherapy and radiation therapy, immunotherapy cannot always work “, Tried to qualify the Fred Hutchinson Research Center in a press release. ” Some patients will need other treatments “.
However, these results are very promising. In France, blood cancer affects approximately 9,000 adults and 700 children and adolescents each year.. It is the first pediatric cancer.
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