China Leading Research in Immune Cell Therapy Against Cancer

China has nine ongoing medical studies using the experimental cancer treatment which extracts T cells from a person’s immune system, genetically alters them using a gene-editing tool called CRISPR and infuses the cells back into the patient.

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CRISPR is used to remove a gene in T cells known as PD-1, a surface receptor that regulates the immune system, preventing autoimmunity by suppressing T cell inflammatory activity.

NPR News interviewed a Chinese cancer patient and his doctor who is treating him with immune cell therapy.

The patient, Shaorong Deng, has undergone radiation and chemotherapy with no positive results and is says he is “lucky” for being able to try this alternative treatment. “I can only hope it will completely… get rid of the cancer,” Deng said.  

There is a reason for optimism. After the first infusion, Deng reported getting better. "I was weak in the limbs before, and now I am not weak anymore."  

Dr. Shixiu Wu, who is leading the study, says it is the most advanced study in China treating sick people. Twenty-two people are part of the study, all of which have advanced-stage, incurable esophagus cancer. “If they don’t receive this treatment they will die — most of them will die in three to six months,” Dr. Wu explained.

In stark difference with the developments in China, only one study has been approved in the United States, and it has just started searching for its first patient.

Hallam Stevens, an anthropologist at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, explains the difference. "Rather than having the starting point being: this could be dangerous, or this could be risky for people, and we need to take that concern uppermost… They start with the premise: this is going to be beneficial for China."