Newly discovered T-cell may treat all ‘cancer’

• Discovery was made during analyzing blood at Cardiff University.
• New discovery haven’t been tested in patients, but the researchers say they have "enormous potential".
• The researchers say their T-cell receptor could lead to a "universal" cancer treatment.

Researchers at Cardiff University have accidentally discovered a new type of immune cell that may treat all types of cancers.

A finding which could herald a major breakthrough in cancer treatment was discovered when researchers were analyzing blood from a bank in Wales, looking for immune cells that could fight bacteria, when they found an entirely new type of T-cell.

The findings published in the journal Nature Immunology haven’t been tested in patients, but the researchers say they have "enormous potential".

Researchers were looking for "unconventional" and previously undiscovered ways the immune system naturally attacks tumours. What they found was a T-cell inside people's blood. This is an immune cell that can scan the body to assess whether there is a threat that needs to be eliminated.

The difference is this one could attack a wide range of cancers.

Talking to BBC, Prof Andrew Sewell said, “There's a chance here to treat every patient. Previously nobody believed this could be possible.

"It raises the prospect of a 'one-size-fits-all' cancer treatment, a single type of T-cell that could be capable of destroying many different types of cancers across the population."

Cardiff researchers team found in the lab test that the T-cells equipped with the new receptor were shown to kill lung, skin, blood, colon, breast, bone, prostate, ovarian, kidney and cervical cancer.

That new immune cell carries a receptor which acts like a grappling hook, latching on to most human cancers, while ignoring healthy cells.

T-cell cancer therapies which engineer immune cells to fight specific types of cancer already exist, but they don’t work on solid tumours, which account for most cancers.

Treatments — known as CAR-T and TCR-T— are a living drug made by genetically engineering a patient's T-cells to seek out and destroy cancer.

The researchers say their T-cell receptor could lead to a "universal" cancer treatment.