Shutterstock
A breakthrough new treatment for blood cancer uses only one simple injection, and so far, the recovery rate is astonishing.
In what promises to be a cure for cancer, Australian doctor Ken Micklethwaite and his team have developed a treatment for cancer that involves injecting modified immune cells into the body that specifically target cancer cells.
The method involves inserting a gene into immune cells, called CAR T cells, and these help the immune system to be able to detect, search and kill cancer cells.
Recently, The Food and Drug Administration approved the treatment in the United States. So far, the US trials are showing a staggering 70-80 percent success rate. In one case, a 19-year-old boy who had been given very little chance of surviving his aggressive leukemia has now gone into total remission after receiving the treatment.
However, the treatment doesn’t come cheap. Because this revolutionary cancer treatment is in its infancy, the cost of one injection is extraordinarily expensive at $500,000 per treatment.
Back in Australia, Dr. Micklethwaite and his team continue to work to develop a way to create the CAR T cells at a lower cost, and hope to bring price tag down to about $10,000 per dose.
Dr. Micklethwaite says his ultimate goal is to say to people: “We’ve given you this treatment and you are cured.”
