Gene therapy to fight a blood cancer succeeds in major study

Gene therapy to fight a blood cancer succeeds in major study

An experimental gene therapy that turns a patient’s own blood cells into cancer killers worked in a major study, with more than one-third of very sick lymphoma patients showing no sign of disease six months after a single treatment, its maker said Tuesday.

A hopeful sign: the number in complete remission at six months — 36 percent — is barely changed from partial results released after three months, suggesting this one-time treatment might give lasting benefits for those who do respond well.

The treatment involves filtering a patient’s blood to remove key immune system soldiers called T-cells, altering them in the lab to contain a gene that targets cancer, and giving them back intravenously.

Doctors call it a “living drug” — permanently altered cells that multiply in the body into an army to fight the disease.

Patients in the study had one of three types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a blood cancer, and had failed all other treatments.