LEUKAEMIA sufferers could benefit from a radical treatment that uses their own malignant cells to kill off the disease.
Researchers at Edinburgh University have discovered a way of cultivating a patient’s leukaemia cells into organisms that will kick-start the immune system into destroying the cancers.
Clinical trials are due to start using the treatment, which in
volves injecting the patient with the specially cultured cells, to prevent a relapse following chemotherapy.
The research is aimed at sufferers of acute myeloblastic leukaemia (AML), which is one of the most common forms of leukaemia in adults in the UK.
Although 70 per cent of patients with AML go into complete remission after chemotherapy treatment, about half of younger patients and the majority of adult patients will suffer a relapse and die.
Three-year survival rates are about 40 per cent in younger patients and 10 per cent in older patients.
Dr Marc Turner, a senior lecturer at Edinburgh University, said: "Leukaemic cells were cultivated in the laboratory using three different cytokines, which are hormones localised to the bone marrow.
"The cultivation of the leukaemic cells turned them into dendritic cells which are responsible for the immune system. When a person suffers from any kind of infection, it is the dendritic cells that activate the immune system.
"Because dendritic cells are derived from the bone marrow and leukaemic cells are abnormal bone marrow cells, this cultivation is able to take place."
Dr Turner, who is also a haematologist for the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, added: "Relapse after initial successful chemotherapy is caused by residual leukaemic cells, which are below a level that can be detected by a microscope.
"Sometimes they can cause the disease to restart and it is much harder to treat the second time around.
"Methods of eliminating this minimal residual disease, such as bone marrow transplantation, can be successful but this form of treatment is only suitable for younger patients who are able to withstand the side effects of the treatment."
About 2,000 new cases of AML are diagnosed in the UK each year.
The first phase of the clinical trial, which is being co-ordinated by Dr Turner, will involve ten to 12 patients. The trial is expected to last between 12 and 18 months.
Dr David Grant, the scientific director of the Leukaemia Research Fund, said: "The study of immunology - harnessing the body’s immune system to fight leukaemia - has advanced amazingly over the last 20 years. It is now crucial that we translate this knowledge into benefits for patients.
"Teaching the immune system to mop up small numbers of residual leukaemia cells would be a major step forward in the treatment of this disease, which affects nearly 2,000 people in the UK each year.
"We hope this work will prove to be successful and eventually save the lives of patients with acute myeloid leukaemia who may otherwise of relapsed and died.
"Importantly, it would also remove the need for further toxic anti-cancer drugs which indiscriminately kill both healthy and diseased cells."
The full article contains 526 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
