Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester said its experimental work on blood cancers such as myeloma resulted in the majority of patients responding to treatment.
Currently, the fund is conducting around 30 clinical trials on blood cancer, including five on myeloma, a disease that develops from the plasma cells of the bone marrow.
Many of the patients in the study had exhausted other treatment options or had only a few left, making the results even more surprising.
Christie’s consultant haematologist Dr Emma Searle said a range of new immunotherapy drugs – so experimental they still don’t have a name – mean that some patients, such as those with myeloma, have cancer undetected.
“The results for this kind of trial – using drugs that enable the immune system to see and attack the myeloma – are incredibly impressive,” she said, reports Metro.
“Using the drugs on their own, we are seeing responses in over two thirds of patients who have no standard treatment options left. And when using the drugs in combination… we are seeing responses in over 90% of patients,” reports Metro.
Dr Searle added: “These drugs are a huge breakthrough in this type of cancer, allowing patients without standard treatment options to achieve remission, in many cases for months or years. When the drugs are used alone they achieve a remission lasting one to two years in most patients. Used in combination with other myeloma drugs, it is likely that responses and the effect on life expectancy will be even longer,” reports Metro.
Blood cancers can be difficult to control, and doctors often find patients very sick because their entire immune system is damaged.
There are around 6,000 new cases of myeloma in the UK each year.
One myeloma patient benefiting from a clinical trial at Christie’s was former children’s nurse Jan Ross, 57, from south Liverpool.
Dr Searle said: “Jan is getting a type of immunotherapy drug in combination with a standard drug. We know the [standard] tablet alone doesn’t work well in her any more, but in this trial it seems to help the immunotherapy work even better,” reports Metro.
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