Getting Cancer Therapy Into The Bones

When prostate cancer, one of the leading causes of cancer death among men, spreads in the body, it most often goes to the bone where it is particularly difficult to treat. Metastasis to the bone is implicated in over 70% of prostate cancer deaths. Prof. Zelig Eshhar, Head of the Immunology Department at the Weizmann Institute of Science, has now shown how a treatment that works on cancer in the prostate can be redirected to the bones.

The treatment, which was developed in Eshhar’s lab a number of years ago, is based on cells that have been engineered to combine two different types of weapons used by the immune system to fight invaders. Antibodies are best at recognizing foreign or altered molecules such as antigens on the outer walls of bacteria, viruses or cancer cells. T cells are better at killing unwanted cells, but not as adept at identification, especially of tricky cancer cells that may already have developed methods of evading detection by the immune system. By attaching an antibody-based structure designed to recognize specific cancer cells directly to a T cell receptor, Eshhar produced custom-modified cells, dubbed T bodies, which are proficient at both finding and killing cancer cells.

Full Story : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/01/050111183441.htm