Question:
Please provide some information on treatment of Metastatic Melanoma.
Answer:
Immune cells customized to attack melanoma
A treatment that replaces most of the body's immune system with cancer-
fighting cells shrank the melanomas of some seriously ill patients,
according to research reported in the Sept. 19 issue of Science.
The study demonstrated that immune cells activated in the laboratory against
patients' tumors and then administered to those patients can attack cancer
cells in the body.
In the study, 13 patients with metastatic melanoma who had not responded to
standard treatments were treated with immune cells produced specifically to
destroy their tumors. The treatment resulted in at least 50% tumor shrinkage
in six of the patients, with no growth or appearance of new tumors. Four
additional patients had some cancer growths disappear.
Researchers in the past have tried to treat cancer with immune cells, but
the cells did not survive well in the body. By suppressing the patients'
immune systems first, study author Steven Rosenberg, MD, PhD, and colleagues
at the National Cancer Institute were able to induce transferred cells to
remain and grow in the body.
