cancer cure

On Thursday 21 September, The Daily Telegraph reported a story that suggested a cure for cancer could be available within two years. CLIC Sargent has the following statement to make in response to this story.

“The research findings of Dr Zheng Cui, of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina, as reported in the New Scientist Magazine and The Daily Telegraph, are very interesting. We are keen to see how this research progresses over the coming years.

“As the UK’s leading cancer charity for children, we support all research into improving treatments for childhood cancers. Survival rates have improved greatly over the last 30 years, with more than seven out of ten children now going on to survive the disease. For this encouraging trend to continue, new advancements in treatment for childhood cancer must be found.

“Whilst the idea of immune surveillance (the body monitoring and to varying extents suppressing cancer cells) is not a new concept, the idea that more generic (non-targeted) immune cells could be utilised instead, is. We wait with anticipation to see what further results this research generates. Specifically, it would be interesting to see how adults respond to this new treatment once the clinical testing phase of this research gets underway.

“Until this new treatment has been tested on adults, it is not possible to say whether this offers genuine hope for the 10 children and young people that are diagnosed with cancer or leukaemia every day in the UK. Whilst it is clearly apparent that this research is interesting, it is important to remember that this treatment technique has yet to be proven to be effective in humans.

“Finally, in introducing any new treatment, particularly for children, it is important to bear in mind what, if any, hazards are associated with it. There is a well recognised potentially serious risk from transfer of immune cells called "graft versus host disease". We already know about this in the field of bone marrow transplants in leukaemia (which is essentially the same sort of idea) where the toxicity of graft versus host disease can also be life threatening. But these are all issues that will be explored over the coming years.

“On the whole though, we find this new research exciting and will watch closely to see what happens next.”

Dr Carole Easton, Chief Executive, CLIC Sargent
Statement prepared with the help of Dr Maria Michelagnoli, Medical Advisor, CLIC Sargent

The story from The Daily Telegraph can be viewed here.