In a small trial of advanced chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients, genetically modified versions of their own T cells behaved like “serial killers” and hunted down and obliterated tumors, resulting in sustained remissions of up to a year. The breakthrough gene therapy treatment has been 20 years in the making, and provides a roadmap for other cancers, say researchers from the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center and Perelman School of Medicine, who report the results in a study published today, 11 August, in two journals: the New England Journal of Medicine and Science Translational Medicine.
