Future of Gene Therapy
In 2006, the first successful use of gene therapy to treat cancer was reported. Researchers removed immune system cells called T-lymphocytes from the blood of 15 patients with advanced melanoma. In the lab, they used a virus to add a new gene to these cells, which enabled the cells to recognize and attack cancer cells. They then injected these cells back into the patients. More than a year after treatment, 2 of the 15 patients had had their tumors shrink to the point that they were no longer detectable. While this small study showed that gene therapy can be helpful against cancer, it may still be some time before the technique is improved upon enough to be more widely useful.
At the current time there are a number of different active and passive immunotherapeutic agents being used in trials to treat cancer. Some have been FDA approved. None is being used for mesothelioma at this time.
(Information on Immunotherapy is from the American Cancer Society.)
