A study which cured almost all its patients of advanced blood cancer originated in Israel.
Professor Zelig Eshhar of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, near Tel Aviv, was at the forefront of a new type of treatment which extracts and genetically modifies white blood cells to help them fight cancer cells.
Out of the 29 leukaemia patients who underwent the study at Pennsylvania University, 27 had their cancer go into remission or vanish completely after being given the altered cells, which are imbued with man-made molecules that allow them to identify and destroy tumour cells.
Prof Eshhar, who pioneered the technique on animals years ago, told The Times of Israel that he felt “a great sense of satisfaction upon hearing the news,” but that he had expected it.
