Immune Cell Cancer Cure

On June 18, 2008, The New England Journal of Medicine reported that a man with advanced-stage skin cancer made a full recovery after receiving a treatment which used his own cloned immune cells to attack the disease in his body.¹

Fast Facts

1. 52-year-old male cleared of melanoma
2. Reported June 18, 2008 in the The New England Journal of Medicine
3. Study done at the Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle
4. Treatment included billions of the patient's cloned immune cells
5. Hoped to be effective against other cancers²
6. Larger study to be conducted

Cell Cloning

The 52-year-old's melanoma had metastasized (spread) to his lymph nodes and one lung. The patient was injected with billions of clones of his own immune cells, and was cancer-free within eight weeks. He remained in remission two years later.²

Immunotherapy

While there are existing treatments designed to prompt the host's immune system to battle cancer, the cloning method is unusual. Researchers cautioned that the treatment required large scale clinical trials before it could be marked as a major breakthrough.²

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