"In efforts to educate the body to fight off cancer, researchers have found that some immune cells are "smarter" than others. Working with collections of human cells, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists tested kill-rates of two kinds of T-cells "primed" to home in on myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow. Those that live in the bone marrow outperformed their counterparts circulating in the blood by more than 90 percent....
...The marrow T-cells identified not only mature myeloma cells but the primitive cells responsible for the disease. Activated bone marrow T-cells stopped the growth of 86 percent of myeloma stem cell colonies compared to 47 percent for activated t-cells taken from circulating blood. The researchers' next step is to determine whether the cells' ability to limit cancer growth in culture dishes ultimately may do the same in patients.
Kimmel Cancer Center researchers are planning studies in a small number of myeloma patients to test the activated marrow T-cells alone and in combination with a myeloma vaccine...."
'Smart' Immune Cells...
http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/node/7109
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