HOPE

Novel Immune Therapy Shrinks Woman’s Late-Stage Pancreatic Cancer, NEJM Reports

New England Journal of Medicine study reports Florida woman who pushed researchers to give her experimental “living drug” immune treatment saw her tumors shrink dramatically.

A Florida woman with advanced pancreatic cancer who persuaded scientists to treat her with an experimental immunity-boosting therapy has seen her tumors shrink dramatically. Kathy Wilkes received pioneering T-cell receptor, or TCR, therapy last June and appears to be beating the often-incurable disease. According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the therapy is designed to harness the immune system to create “living drugs” that can target and destroy tumors. “It’s really exciting. It’s the first time this sort of treatment has worked in a very difficult-to-treat cancer type,” Josh Veatch of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, who wasn’t involved with the experiment, told the Associated Press. Wilkes, from Ormond Beach, tracked down researchers in Oregon to volunteer for the treatment. “I knew that regular chemotherapy would not save my life and I was going for the save,” she said,