The impossible is possible: a pensioner was able to get rid of three types of cancerous tumors at once

Less than a month ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asked a regulatory committee to give a favorable review to a cancer treatment that uses gene editing, which it has already described as a "new era in medicine," Republic magazine reported, citing a report from Nautilus.

The newest drug, made from the patient's own blood cells, is expensive, but the price is worth it. It almost kills the patient, but does not kill him completely: cancer cells are destroyed, and healing occurs.

The new drug took several years to research and test, but has now undergone hundreds of clinical trials. However, the most telling case was the first one, when no one could say for sure what effect the new drug would have.

The pioneer who tried the new method on himself was William Ludwig, a 64-year-old man living in New Jersey. He was in critical condition: at that time, he was diagnosed with three different types of cancer at the same time - squamous cell epithelioma, lymphoma and anemia. Chemotherapy drugs were already useless, and damaged b-cells were chaotically spreading throughout the body. And then it was decided to test a new unique type of therapy on this patient, which was, in fact, a complete reboot of the immune system.

The treatment mechanism was as follows: it was necessary to restore the ability of the patient's antibodies to counteract tumor markers. Normally, antibodies bind them and mark them as unnecessary for the body. In turn, T-lymphocytes detect the formed structure consisting of antigens and antibodies, and stimulate the launch of an immune response through cytokines.

The new method in question was invented back in 1989 by employees of the Weizmann Institute in Israel: it was called CAR-T (Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cells). The chimeric receptor is a protein consisting of links belonging to different sources, which is where the term "chimeric" comes from. This allows T-lymphocytes to identify cancer cells for further targeted attack by the immune defense.

The first patient's CAR-T design was created using computer-generated gene segments from rodents, marmots and cows. They then constructed a chimeric DNA molecule that does not exist in nature. The team injected the molecule into neutral HIV, took venous blood from Ludwig and ran it through a device that separated the T cells. The cells were attached to the virus in such a way that the artificial gene was freely installed in the cell's genome. This allowed the lymphocytes to identify specific markers located on the malignant b-structures.

The specialists relied only on their own assumptions and could not say with certainty what exactly would happen next, and whether such a reboot would lead to worsening intoxication.

The patient was willing to take the risk, and in August 2010, he underwent the first stage of treatment, carefully analyzing the body's reaction. After two injections, the patient's health did not improve. However, ten days later, before the third dose of lymphocytes was administered, the patient suddenly felt ill: a fever developed, his heart rate increased, and his blood pressure increased. According to doctors, a cytokine storm began - a potentially lethal immune response. The essence of such a reaction is that T-lymphocytes detected the necessary antigens and called in cytokines that stimulate a protective immune response. This process led to an increase in temperature, vasodilation, and heartbeat: such mechanisms were activated in order to help the lymphocytes get closer to the target faster.

The storm lasted for a couple of hours, after which it suddenly ended. A month later, doctors analyzed a bone marrow sample. They were amazed: it was a sample of an absolutely healthy person. To avoid confusion, doctors performed a second analysis, which only confirmed: there were no cancer cells in William Ludwig's body. Doctors were amazed, because they had never seen such dramatic changes for the better before.

For a year after the treatment, the specialists did not tell the patient about the positive results obtained, fearing a relapse of the disease. But the tests confirmed each time - there was no cancer.

According to experts, before the start of treatment, Ludwig's body contained at least a kilogram of malignant cells. With the help of a new type of treatment, it was possible to completely remove them - no one had achieved such a result before.

Subsequent clinical trials allowed patients to get rid of a larger volume of cancer cells – from one and a half to 3.5 kg over the course of several days. And two years later, doctors managed to cure a six-year-old girl, Emily Whitehead, who still feels great.

Doctors have used this type of treatment on hundreds of patients. Unfortunately, not all patients responded well to the therapy: in some, the immune response was only a slight fever, while in others, it was severe convulsions and the development of a critical condition. Specialists were forced to end clinical trials after 13% of fatal cases.

Today, scientists are working to eliminate certain technical problems with this method. It is necessary to adjust T-lymphocytes, directing them only to strictly specific markers – for example, only to breast cancer cells. The difficulty is that such markers are normally found in minimal quantities in healthy structures – in cardiac tissues, in the thymus. To avoid problems, specialists need to create lymphocytes with a chimeric programmable receptor that could be controlled. It would also be good to predict in advance how a particular organism will respond to treatment.

At the moment, unexpected reactions of the body occur relatively often. For example, in the spring of 2017, scientists stopped the experiments due to the death of 5 out of 38 patients who took part in the testing.

However, the success of this treatment is obvious, and several corporations are working on the new method, including the pharmaceutical company Novartis. Therefore, presumably, CAR-T therapy will soon be presented as the main method of fighting cancer.

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