Mark Makela / Reuters
A new study in Milan proved that cancer researchers could use “memory T-cells” to fight the disease, much like a vaccine, for more than 14 years. Scientists announced the discovery at a conference in Washington, D.C. “T-cells are a living drug, and in particular they have the potential to persist in our body for our whole lives,” said Chiara Bonini, a hematologist at San Raffaele Scientific Institute and Vita e Salute San Raffaele University in Milan. In the new study, Bonini and others have proven for the first time that the cancer-fighting cells can exist in the body for more than a decade beyond the initial treatment. Bonini is now trying to engineer cells that can find and wipe out various types of cancer. When that development is combined with the memory cells, it could effectively vaccinate the body against cancer.