A universal cancer treatment—one that could work for all cancers in all people—is in the works after researchers discovered a new immune cell. This “Holy Grail” treatment makes use of a unique T-cell—a type of white blood cell that assists our body’s immune system by scanning for and killing abnormal cells.
There does already exist a cancer therapy called CAR-T that harnesses this ability of T-cells. However, it involves having to remove those T-cells from a patient’s blood, genetically engineering them to seek out and kill cancer cells, and then putting them back in the person’s body to get to work.
While it may sound like the solve-all solution, CAR-T has its limitations. It only works against a small number of cancers, it’s patient-specific, and it isn’t effective against solid tumors. Most cancers are solid tumors. That last limitation is exactly what a newer cord blood cancer treatment from UCLA is designed to overcome.
The new treatment, being developed by researchers from Cardiff University, is different.
The team discovered that there’s a T-cell equipped with a T-cell receptor (TCR) that recognizes a molecule called MR1. This molecule is found on the surface of several types of cancer cells. It is located on healthy cells as well, but T-cells equipped with this TCR know to destroy only cancer cells. The study has been published in the journal Nature Immunology.
The Cardiff researchers trialed their discovery through lab tests. They took this new TCR and released it among lung, skin, colon, breast, ovarian, blood, bone, prostate, and cervical cancer cells. It was able to kill every type while ignoring healthy cells!
In another lab test, the researchers modified the T-cells of melanoma patients so they would express the newly discovered TCR. These modified cells were then able to target and kill both the patient’s own cancer cells and the cancer cells of other patients.
The team has not yet tested the modified T-cells in cancer patients. They have tested them in mice, however. The mice were injected with human cancers. The modified T-cells recognized the MR1 molecule in the cancer cells in the mice and exhibited “encouraging” disease-destroying abilities.
Andrew Sewell, one of the researchers on the team, said in the press release, “Cancer-targeting via MR1-restricted T-cells is an exciting new frontier. It raises the prospect of a ‘one-size-fits-all’ cancer treatment: a single type of T-cell that could be capable of destroying many different types of cancers across the population. Previously nobody believed this could be possible.”
The next phase of their study will involve additional tests in mice, and if all goes well, the treatment could be available for patients within a few years.
