The treatment involves injecting transformed cancer cells to destroy the cancer.
And if it were soon possible to prevent the brain cancers by a simple vaccine? This is the promise of work carried out by researchers at Harvard Medical School who have developed a particularly innovative treatment. The goal, to inject cancerous cells into a patient’s body in order to destroy those that represent a greater danger. The first results are very promising.
Modified tumor cells
The results of this unpublished work have been published in the scientific journal Science Translational Medicine. The scientists started from a very simple postulate in appearance: to modify tumor cells so that they become “killers” of cancerous cells.
When a glioblastoma, brain cancer most common in adults, develops, the cancer cells that originated it migrate to the brain, but always eventually return to their original location and eventually grow there. The purpose of the cells created by the researchers is to take the place of these cancerous cells to destroy them.
The memory of the immune system
The action of this “cancer vaccine” doesn’t stop there, because once injected, the modified cells elicit an immune system response that registers the characteristics of glioblastoma-related cells to prevent their recurrence.
To prevent the situation from degenerating, the cells modified by the scientists have a “safety” that sends them the message to self-destruct to prevent them from proliferating in turn.
First conclusive tests
This treatment therefore has a dual purpose: to treat glioblastomas when they have begun to develop, but also to prevent their appearance. The first results obtained on laboratory mice with brain cancer are very promising, but it will still take a long time for this test phase to be transposed to humans. But if the results were confirmed, the door would be open to the treatment of other forms of cancer.