Question: What do you think about the new cancer treatment where they give you a drug which makes the body attack the cancerous cells using the natural immune system by getting disabling the restriction on the body that it can't attack it's own cells? PS - tell me if I have got it wrong, I only heard it on the news a few days ago : ).

Laura Wales answered on 17 Jun 2015:

Yes, I read an article about this and it sounds amazing and very promising!

Using the body’s own immune system to target cancer cells is by far a more favourable option than current treatments. What was previously understood was that the immune system detects cancer and works at full capacity to fight it off by flood the body with T-cells. T-cells are cancer killing cells that recognise the cancer cells as foreign and destroy them. This required huge amounts of energy and the immune system gets tired and T-cells can’t do their job.

Now scientists have found a new protein that produces a massive energy boost and loads and loads of T-cells are made – so many that the cancer cells can’t fight them off. It also causes an increase in memory cells so if these cancer cells come back, the immune system will know what they are really quickly and destroy them.

Using this type of therapy avoids the need for toxic chemo drugs. I love science!