Discovery of killer immune cell could lead to 'universal' cancer treatment
A newly discovered type of killer immune cell has raised the prospect of a "universal" cancer therapy, scientists say.
Professor Andrew Sewell, lead author on the study from Cardiff University's School of Medicine, said it was "highly unusual" to find a TCR with such broad cancer specificity and this raised the prospect of "universal" cancer therapy.
He added: "We hope this new TCR may provide us with a different route to target and destroy a wide range of cancers in all individuals. Current TCR-based therapies can only be used in a minority of patients with a minority of cancers.
"Cancer-targeting via MR1-restricted T-cells is an exciting new frontier - it raises the prospect of a 'one-size-fits-all' cancer treatment; a single type of T-cell that could be capable of destroying many different types of cancers across the population. Previously nobody believed this could be possible."