Immunotherapy

[Lemongrove]

Thank you for posting this. The Prof who treats me started a charity to raise funds for research at Imperial College - isn't it crazy that such an esteemed institution as Imperial College is turning to charity to fund research?
One encouraging bit of news though is that Reolysin (which is a type of retrovirus that you describe above), is at stage 3 in the US (but for head and neck cancers rather than BC). However, although it hasn't been used on BC yet, I believe they are just about to start doing some research. I note though that the BC research will be funded by the University carrying out the work. Maybe as Oncolytics hold the rights to Reolysin, and are light years ahead in the area of retroviruses, other pharmaceutical companies think there is no point in funding research in this area (who knows).

[Angelfalls]

This all sounds incredibly promising. Thanks for sharing. It's just so frustrating that governments seem to have their priorities all wrong.

[Guest user]

Hi all
Of late, there's been increased media coverage of immunotherapy, a treatment which harnesses a patient's immune system to kill cancer cells. There was a programme about it on last Tuesday's Newsnight, and whilst you can't watch it on i-player anymore, I've copied a link to the ICR's article which has a further link to an indepth BBC article. There have also been some posts on the American site about a phase 1 trial in the States which uses the body's own killer T cells to attack tumours and also gives the body's imune system a memory so that it can keep on killing the little s**ts (not a scientific term!).
http://www.icr.ac.uk/press/recent_featured_articles/promise_immunotherapy/index.shtml
These treatments are being used, albeit on a very small group of patients and the results are encouraging. Unfortunately, as you will read progress is being hampered by the current financial situation. Having said that, some kind soul contributed £10 million to Cancer Research UK which will go towards building a cancer immunology centre.
I'd be interested to know if anyone on the forum has any news or views about this treatment.
It's encouraging to me to know that so many gifted people are working tirelessly to find treatments and maybe one day a cure for cancer.
Moondog xx