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GM Blood Kills Human Cancer Cells

Posted by timothy on from the so-do-ford-trucks dept.

adri writes "New Scientist has an article which outlines an interesting method of combating cancer: genetically modifying T-cells in human blood to seek and destroy bowel cancer cells."

1 of 27 comments (clear)

  1. The problem is... by Ieshan · · Score: 4, Informative

    "Tweaking white blood cells so that they do their job more effectively would be a far better answer, since they wouldn't attack healthy tissue."

    Right, sure, that sounds very good on paper. The problem is, T cells work by recognizing surface antigens present on certain cells and not on others, or the absence of certain key antigens. I think autoimmune issues will be the *first* to occur - we're teaching someone's T cells how to kill cells in his own body, granted, cells that have been mutated in some way, but still.

    I'm not so sure this will work in vivo as well as it has in vitro. :-\