After a chance observation in the lab, researchers found a method that can force dangerous leukemia cells in the lab to mature into harmless immune cells called macrophages.
B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia with a mutation called the Philadelphia chromosome is a particularly aggressive cancer with poor outcomes, said Ravi Majeti, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine and senior author of the paper. So finding potential treatments is particularly exciting.
Majeti and his colleagues have some reason to hope that when the cancer cells become macrophages they will not only be neutralized, but may actually assist in fighting the cancer.
Faster, please!
remarkable!
ReplyDeleteWhile it does hold promise 'in the lab' is a universe away from the real world. That's why we distinguish between In Vitro and In Vivo. In almost 4 decades of healthcare I've read a lot
ReplyDeleteof stories and papers on tech and meds that had promise. Most went nowhere. Some caused as much harm as good, only a handful truly pan out.