Trying to attack a type of immune cell that has gone rogue

Cancer can be very difficult to treat, and there aren’t always lots of different chemotherapy options or treatments for a type of cancer.

Sometimes, cancer cells can even evolve during treatment, so that a medicine that was killing the cancer cells suddenly stops working.

When this happens, or when cancer comes back after treatment, it can be even harder to treat.

Fortunately, there are lots of researchers working hard to find new and better options for these patients.

One of them is funded by The Little Princess Trust - Professor Gary Middleton at the University of Birmingham.

Gary is working on a clinical trial that’s rather snappily named – the GOTHAM trial, which is a little less exciting when written out in full: ‘A phase II trial to assess the activity of Gemtuzumab Ozogamicin Therapy in HAemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis/Macrophage activation syndrome or relapsed/refractory cancers.’

The trial is testing a brand new treatment to make sure that it works and is effective. It has already enlisted seven patients with cancer, but is still looking for more participants.

In particular, Gary is looking for patients with two rare conditions that cause there to be far too many immune cells in patients’ bodies. This can be very dangerous and is currently treated with chemotherapy.

Because patients with cancer have similar issues with immune cells, the researchers had the idea to test a new treatment for all of these groups.

Their treatment attacks a type of immune cell that has gone rogue. These cells would normally fight bacteria and invaders to the body, but instead end up protecting cancer cells from the immune system, making the cancer a lot harder to treat.

Gary’s team will finish work next year. They hope that this project will provide evidence to show that their new treatment works so that these children have a new and effective treatment option.

You can find out more about Gary’s project here.