Genetically Modified Skin Cells Help Fight Neuroblastoma

A new paper confirms that using the immune system to treat neuroblastoma may be a fruitful approach and describes a new way of delivering the treatment for such tumours, that would involve using a patients own genetically modified skin cells. (British Journal of Cancer, published online.)

Neuroblastoma is the single most common solid tumour in children, accounting for 8-10 per cent of childhood cancers and 15 per cent of childhood cancer deaths. It is cancer of the neural crest cells.Results for children diagnosed in the first 12-18 months of life are good, but relapsed neuroblastoma in older children is possibly the most intractable problem in childhood cancer, with a very poor prognosis.Dr Stephen Hart and colleagues at the UCL Institute of Child Health sought to stimulate the immune system around a tumour to attack it. Working with mice, the creatures’ own skin cells were genetically modified and injected into the tumour. The results were promising, with treated mice living 90 days or more longer than the untreated group. Mice without tumours treated with these cells were then exposed to neuroblastoma cells – their immune systems were more effective at ‘recognising’ the tumour and limiting further tumour growth.Dr Hart said “The genetically modified cells are little factories, producing proteins – proinflammatory cytokines – which promote immune activity. A major issue with neuroblastoma is that it spreads – but we could hope that this approach would allow us to attack the tumour cells wherever they went in the body.””Our results match those found with genetically modified tumour cells but use of the patient’s own skin cells would generally be easier. These cells can be taken by a routine skin punch biopsy, grown in the lab then genetically modified before injecting into the tumour site. “Dr Hart is cautious about how quickly this work could be brought to clinical trials in humans. “Given the need for further research, and the regulatory issues, it must be at least five years before we could expect to start trials in humans.”(Source: British Journal of Cancer : University College London Institute of Child Health : August 2007)