Gene-engineered T cells are superior adjuvant therapy for cancer.

2004 OCT 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Gene-engineered T cells are a superior adjuvant therapy for metastatic cancer.

According to a study from Australia, "The major limiting factor in the successful application of adjuvant therapy for metastatic disease is the lack of adjuvant specificity that leads to severe side effects. Reasoning that T cells of the immune system are highly specific, we generated tumor-specific T cells by genetic modification of mouse primary T cells with a chimeric receptor reactive with the human breast cancer-associated antigen erbB-2. These T cells killed breast cancer cells and secreted IFN-gamma in an antigen-specific manner in vitro."

"We investigated their use against metastatic breast cancer in mice in an adjuvant setting, and compared their effectiveness with the commonly applied adjuvants doxorubicin, 5-fluorouracil, and herceptin," said Michael H. Kershaw and colleagues at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute. "Mice were inoculated orthotopically with the human erbB-2-expressing spontaneously metastatic mouse breast cancer 4T1.2 in mammary tissue, and the primary tumor was surgically removed 8 days later. Significant metastatic disease was demonstrated in lung and liver at the time of surgery on ...