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Reengineering Life
Doctors Are Using Genetically Enhanced Donor Cells to Treat Cancer Patients
Eight out of 11 subjects showed improvement — but one died
Reengineering Life is a series from Future Human about the astonishing ways genetic technology is changing humanity and the world around us.
Eleven patients whose cancer either resisted conventional treatments or returned after a period of time have received infusions of donor cells enhanced with the gene-editing tool CRISPR.
In an encouraging sign, tumors in eight patients reduced in size, leading to remission for two of the patients. But the death of one person in the trial, a 72-year-old man, was deemed to be related to the edited cells.
The biotech firm behind the experimental treatment, CRISPR Therapeutics, announced the results last week. The company is aiming to develop a ready-to-use cancer therapy made of living cells that could be mass produced, and this early-stage trial is testing that possibility. Its process is as follows: First, doctors extract specialized immune cells, called T cells, from the blood of healthy donors. Then, using CRISPR, scientists make three simultaneous edits to the cells in a lab. The edits are meant to target the T cells to the tumor and allow them to…
