An Experimental Pediatric Cancer Treatment Shows Promise in New Research

In Germany, a 7-year-old boy had been diagnosed with kidney cancer. He had beaten it back with a series of treatments over about a decade and was able to live a relatively normal life, pursuing his love of riding his bike and becoming a serious cyclist. But by the time he was 17, the cancer had returned and spread to multiple organs, including his brain. He was out of options.The most his team could offer was an experimental treatment to buy a little time, says Dr. Christian Seitz, head of the Cell and Gene Therapy Program at Hopp Children's Cancer Center in Heidelberg. Seitz and his colleagues found that the boy’s cancer carried a set of markers that could be targets for immune cells, called T-cells, that are specially programmed to hunt cancer, and although this type of solid tumor is not usually treatable this way, the team decided to proceed.As they describe in a new paper published Aug. 12 in the New England Journal of Medicine, a single infusion of the cells last year resulted in a complete remission. The boy just came in for his follow-up, Seitz says. More than a year later, he still has no detectable signs of cancer. The study suggests that doctors and scientists may be abl...