With no other options left available to them, researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Penn., with funding from the pharmaceutical company Novartis, reprogrammed the HIV virus to insert a new gene into T cells harvested from a patient (HIV is well suited, as it infects T cells, and inserts its genome into the T cell DNA). This gene gave the T cells the ability to target proteins present on the the surface of B cells (which are malignant in patients with lymphocytic leukemia). These T cells are then injected back into the patient, allowing the the reprogrammed T cells to attack and kill the malignant B cells, inducing remission of the leukemia in the patient.
But it's not all roses. The treatment is very dangerous because a cytokine storm is released, which causes fevers that may lead unconsciousness, depressed autonomic functions, edema, and possibly death. If the patient survives, the reprogrammed T cells continue to kill B cells, whether they are malignant or not, meaning the patient requires regular immunoglobulin injections to keep them from getting sick with certain infections. But it beats the alternative, because the ten patients that this has been tried on had relapsed refractory leukemia, meaning other treatment options had failed, and they were facing death.
Of the ten patients this treatment was used on, three adults had complete remissions, four improved but did not achieve full remission, one child improved then relapsed, for two adults the treatment had no effect, and one other is too soon to tell. For a preliminary trial, these results are promising. And, at $20,000 for the treatment, the cost in considerably less than the cost of a bone marrow transplant and normal drug regime used to treat leukemia. This treatment may also have promise in treating other types of cancer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/10/health/a-breakthrough-against-leukemia-using-altered-t-cells.html?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/health/13gene.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0pagewanted=1&_r=5&smid=fb-share
https://ash.confex.com/ash/2012/webprogram/Paper49948.html
https://ash.confex.com/ash/2012/webprogram/Paper49063.html
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1103849
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