Promising Cancer Treatment is Adoptive Cell Transfer (ACT)

Among the most recent and more promising new approaches to fighting cancer is a treatment that uses the power of a patient’s immune system to combat his or her disease. The new therapy is based on a technology known as “Adoptive Cell Transfer” (ACT) and it involves engineering a patient’s own immune cells to recognize and go after tumors.

T Cells, a type of immune cell, are the building blocks of ACT therapy. According to the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health, the new therapy could be considered a vital breakthrough in treating cancer.

Here’s how it works: A cancer patient’s T cells are collected and removed from the patient’s body and then altered for the specific purpose of attacking the cancer cells and subsequently eliminating them. After being removed from a cancer patient’s body, the T cells are genetically engineered to produce special receptors on their surface called chimeric antigen receptors (CARs). CARs are proteins that allow the T cells to recognize a specific protein or antigen (known as CD19) which is present on the surface of certain leukemia and other blood cancer cells. The engineered CAR T cells are modified in the laboratory until they number in the billions. The expanded populations of CAR T cells are then infused, or re-injected, back into the patient. In an ideal situation, the T cells multiply in the patient’s body and with guidance from their engineered receptor, the T cells recognize and kill cancer cells that harbor the antigen on their surfaces.