Jakarta. Cancer is known as one of the many types of diseases that require treatment and difficult to cure completely. Now the latest study found a cancer cell could be eradicated by its own body’s immune cells.

One of the latest effort to boost the body’s defense against cancer is called Adoptive Cell Transfer, in which patients received therapeutic injections of their own immune cells, as reported by epharmapedia on Thursday (04/08/2011).

However, these therapies have limitations when tested in early clinical trials for melanoma (a type of skin cancer) and neuroblastoma (nerve cancer that often found in children).

Taking immune cells from patients and grow outside the body to re-injected is very expensive and technically not easy.

To overcome these limitations while enhancing the ability of tumor cells resist has been transferred, Weizmann Institute scientists have now tested the treatment in mice.

The new approach should be more readily applied than the method of adoptive cell transfer is already there because it relies on donor immune cells that can be prepared in advance, not on the patient’s own cells.

In addition, immune cells can specifically search for and identify tumors that further enhance its demise. This method was pioneered by Prof. Eshhar more than twenty years ago.

In that study, the scientists suppress the immune system of mice with a mild dose of radiation. They then give the modified immune cells in controlled doses.

Light treatment while preventing immune cell donor was rejected by the recipient, but does not prevent these cells from attacking the body of mice, particularly tumor cells. This approach is appropriate and effective. The delay in immune cell rejection is given sample opportunity to destroy the tumor.

If this method works in humans as in mice, it can lead to an affordable cell transfer therapy for various cancers. Therapy will depend on the donor’s immune cells that are equipped with receptors to suppress various types of cancer cells.

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