While it's still a ways off, this is the most promising development I've seen so far....
Immune discovery 'may treat all cancer'
Fingers crossed.
This is called Car-T therapy, and it is very promising. "They" have been using it to treat...and sometimes cure...leukemia type cancers for years now. It's not all THAT new. In fact, it is the FDA approved standard of care approach for most blood cancers. It works quite well....though it's not quite as good for things like brain cancer or other cancers that involve solid tumors. In fact, so far 'they' have determined that it WON'T work in all cancers; metastatic cancers? Sometimes. ..but only on the part that metastasizes. But hey, that's a very positive thing, being able to treat that. They still have to treat the original cancer tumors in a different way. Those T-cells have to be able to get to the cancer, and that's not easy in tumors.
In fact, I'm waiting to see if I qualify for a brand new Car-T cell trial for a new version (Car-T cells that target a different molecule, NOT MR1) that so far has only had one patient in the trial, He died from Cytokine release syndrome. That is when the cancer treatment works TOO well, and your system is flooded with all the dead cancer cells. That's not a good thing to happen. So the City of Hope is going...if I 'pass' all the screening tests, to try it on me next, using a far smaller dose. I have a type of cancer that 'they' haven't tried this on very often; not a 'blood' cancer, but a bone marrow cancer. The process and hope is the same, though.
Fingers crossed, indeed...and a few prayers wouldn't hurt, either. People have lived for many years with Multiple Myeloma, and I want to be one of 'em.
