New treatment for cancer sufferers after organ transplant

RESEARCHERS have developed a new treatment which offers hope to organ transplant patients who go on to develop blood cancer, it emerged today.

A team at the University of Edinburgh has used cell therapy treatment in an attempt to combat the fact that one in 10 people who receive a donated organ develops cancer.

The disease proves fatal in 50 per cent of cases.

A study of the team's work, published in the journal Transplantation, found that patients who received the new treatment remained free from cancer for up to nine years.

Patients who developed blood cancer were treated with white blood cells - known as T cells - which patrol the body and identify and kill virus-infected cells.

The team treated patients who suffered from a type of blood cancer called post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD).

It is associated with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a herpes virus that is carried by more than 90 per cent of the population.

The virus is generally harmless but can cause tumours in transplant patients whose immune systems are heavily suppressed to prevent rejection of the transplanted organ.

Up to 10 per cent of patients may develop the cancer in the first few years following transplant and around 50 per cent of those will die even with standard treatment.

The university team grew T cells in a laboratory and gave them to 33 PTLD patients - who had not responded to standard treatments - for one month. Around half the treated patients showed a good response after six months.

The study shows that 90 per cent of those who responded initially have remained cancer-free for between four and nine years.

Lead researcher Dr Tanzina Haque said: "Our results are very encouraging and show that not only are our cells effective in the short-term, but that they can also induce a long-term remission of PTLD in patients with more refractory disease."