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Doctors call cancer immunotherapy treatment ground breaking, incredible news

Posted at 11:28 PM, Jul 27, 2017
and last updated 2017-07-28 10:33:12-04

A cutting edge cancer therapy is saving lives and giving patients a tremendous amount of hope.

It’s a living drug that is curing a severe form of leukemia.

Some metro Detroit doctors are calling this new drug ground breaking and incredible news.

It’s a form of immunotherapy that has been successful in treating and curing a form of severe cancer in children and young adults called, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

An FDA panel is recommending approval for gene altering therapy in the fight against cancer.

“Its basically t cells that are taken from the patients and genetically modified so that they can recognize the tumor. The cells are infused back into the patient and the patient is given some mild chemotherapy, to make space for those cells. The cells learn to recognize the tumor and they go in and they multiple many and they are able to kill the tumor,” explains Dr. Abhiinav Deol, MS. of the Karmanos Cancer Institute.

The clinical trials have been very successful; this new treatment is saving lives.

“It’s very, very encouraging to see patients getting back to their normal life and being able to lead a normal life after being treated,” says Deol.

Many patients had no hope before this treatment become available.

He expects an official FDA approval to come down sometime in September.