UCSF develops possible alternative to chemotherapy

SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU) - Researchers at UCSF Mission Bay have developed a new way to treat cancer. They say it could be safer for patients than chemotherapy.

The team tells KTVU it took years of work to develop, but that this could be a major step in reducing side effects for cancer patients undergoing treatment.

"Definitely a very exciting development, I think," said Scott Coyle, a member of the research team." You can come to work really motivated everyday knowing that the things that you are working on or are doing can really have an impact on somebody's life, hopefully."

The team, led by Dr. Wendell Lim, UCSF professor and Vice-Chair of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, has come up with a precise way to fight cancer cells without killing healthy cells.

Dr. Lim's team has taken videos through microscopes to show how the new therapy fights cancer. The researchers develop and modify t-cells which are immune system cells.

They are designed to be injected into a patient.

"You can see this immune cell recognized this gray cancer cell and immediately you can see it forming these bubbles. That's actually a sign of this cell being killed," said Dr. Lim as he showed KTVU the videos his team created.

With the use of certain drugs, doctors can control the t-cells in a patient's body with precision, allowing the doctor to determine when and which cancer cells to kill.
　
Right now, the drug based remote control system appears to be effective against blood cancers such as leukemia
but not solid tumors such as brain, colon or breast cancer.

"There's not going to one silver bullet that's going to take care of it all. It's going to be with us for a long time, but we're going to have better and better tools," said Krista McNally, a UCSF Tissue Culture Specialist.

The research team hopes human trials will take place in about a year.