A Cure for Cancer?

Imagine a world without cancer. Looks nice and healthy, doesn’t it? Well, it could be a reality sooner than we think.

In a landmark case, a man with advanced skin cancer was administered billions of his own immune cells that attacked and decimated his skin cancer—and he’s been cancer-free for more than two years now.

Doctors took cells from the man’s own defense system that were shown as the best defense against the cancer cells and then injected them back into his body, which is a process called immunotherapy. The billions of replicated cells sought and destroyed all the cancer cells that had spread to his lymph nodes and one of his lungs. Immunotherapy is also less toxic than chemotherapy or radiation therapy.

While researchers are obviously excited about this monumental achievement, they emphasize that more studies are needed. In addition, the procedure is very expensive. However, if all goes well, researchers are optimistic that this process could be customized to fight all sorts of cancers, especially breast, colon and lung.

Do you think we’re on the cusp of a cure for cancer? [The Daily Telegraph]