Cure for Cancer? - LIFT Treatment Now Entering Human Trials

It what promises to be one of the most watched clinical trials in history, Dr. Zheng Cui, lead researcher and Associate Professor of pathology at Wake Forest , today announced the start of clinical trials in humans, of a new experimental treatment for cancer. Dr. Cui made the announcement at "Understanding Aging: Biomedical and Bioengineering Approaches", a scientific conference sponsored by Aubrey de Grey's Methuselah Foundation. The novel treatment, Leukocyte InFusion Therapy (LIFT) was 100% effective in destroying advanced cancers in laboratory mice, according to Dr. Cui. I'll say that again in case the significance of it didn't fully register. LIFT treatments were 100% effective at curing cancer in mice with even the most advanced stages of aggressive malignant cancers. The cancer cures were affected without side effects. If the newly announced trials of LIFT in humans prove to be similarly effective at curing cancer, we may be facing the dawn of a new age in medicine.

In the precursor to these human trials, Dr. Cui, along with Dr. Mark Willingham also of Wake Forest, led a research team that found that certain mice possessed white blood cells with strong cancer fighting properties. These cells sensed the presence of cancer cells, surrounded them, and then injected them with cancer-killing compounds. This worked not only in the mice that originally possessed these cells, but also in mice to which the cells were transferred. The mice that received a transfusion of these special cancer-fighting cells had advanced cancers cured. The subject mice were also protected from new cancers when injected with what are ordinarily fatal doses of aggressive new cancers.

Drs. Cui and Willingham began following the line of research that led to LIFT when, quite unexpectedly, they found a single mouse who repeatedly survived injection of cancers that were known to be lethal in all other mice. Subsequent research found that some offspring of this mouse also inherited its natural immunity to cancer, and that this cancer-fighting property could be transferred to other mice through a transfusion of certain white blood cells.

The researchers state that humans also possess these special cancer fighting cells, but their effectiveness is highly variable between individuals. Their ability to ward off cancer can be affected by such factors as genetics, age, seasonality, and stress levels. By taking granulocytes, the portion of human leukocytes with the highest cancer fighting activity, from the most cancer-resistant donors and injecting them into people with aggressive cancer tumors that have previously proved unresponsive to other therapies, Dr. Willingham says the Wake Forest Team hopes to prove that this Leukocyte InFusion Therapy (LIFT) can "be another arrow in the quiver of treatments aimed at cancer."

These Phase II trials are designed to test the tolerance of the patients to therapeutic levels of granulocyte infusions. In the upcoming trials, 22 patients with solid tumors that have proven unresponsive to other therapies will receive LIFT treatments. The donor granulocytes will come from the 100 volunteers, of a total pool of 500, whose blood tests show the highest cancer- fighting potential. Granulocyte transfusions have previously been used as a means of treating difficult infectious diseases, but have not previously been thought to be effective against cancer. In contrast to earlier white blood cell transfusion trials, however, Dr. Cui says, "we're selecting the healthy donors based on the cancer-killing ability of their white blood cells." After three months of participation, LIFT treatment recipients will be checked to see if they have received clinical benefit from the granulocyte infusions.

The doctors speak of their hope for clinical benefit and measurable efficacy for the treatment of cancer in humans with LIFT, but it is still unknown how effective, if at all, LIFT can be in treating human cancer. Dr. Cui points out, however, that a wide variety of the most aggressive cancers were completely cured with this approach in mice, and he hopes to see demonstrable benefits in humans as well with this clinical trial.

Sources:

Cancer "Cure" in Mice to be Tested in Humans. From press materials provided by Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center through Newswise, retrieved June 26, 2008 from http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/542007/

White Blood Cells of Cancer-Resistant Mice Overwhelm Natural Defenses of Cancer Cells, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, retrieved June 26, 2008 from http://www1.wfubmc.edu/News/NewsARticle.htm?ArticleID=1972

Cui, Zheng. Abstract. Retrieved from Understanding Aging: Biomedical and Bioengineering Approaches, The Methuselah Foundation, on June 28, 2008 http://www.methuselahfoundation.org/UABBA/speakers/cui/