Cancer therapy trial shows promise

Previously, scientists had only theorised that there was a single control. Dr Lowdell and his colleagues have shown that NK-resistant tumours usually lack the priming signal. The activation process uses a tumour-specific priming signal to generate TaNK cells (Tumour-activated NK Cells) from resting NK cells. These TaNK cells are already primed when they are infused into the patient and can thus be triggered when they come across a tumour cell; even when the tumour cell lacks the priming signal.

Laboratory experiments showed that these TaNK cells target a variety of haematological cancers as well as breast cancer and ovarian cancer cells. Initially it is hoped that this may increase the duration of remission periods in cancer patients but the long-term goal is to clear residual tumour cells after chemotherapy.

The main benefit, compared with more traditional chemical-based treatments, is that there are far fewer side-effects. The research is funded by Leukaemia Research, and the trial’s principal investigator is Dr Panos Kottaridis of the Royal Free Hospital.