359: Immune system

Potential New Approach to Fighting Cancer | Science Blog:

In mice and humans, hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) form both red blood cells and immune system cells. In mice, Yang and Baltimore succeeded in altering some HSCs so that they would generate specific kinds of T cells that aggressively attack and destroy specific cancer cells. Once the mouse immune system received this enhancement, it became able to generate its own cancer-specific T cells on a long-term basis. When helped by dendritic cells (another type of immune system cell) carrying a piece of the tumor's marker protein, the methodology achieved the complete elimination of large, established tumors. While the work is preliminary and was done with mice, says Baltimore, instructive immunotherapy could eventually be used for controlling the growth of tumors in humans.

Why do they think it will work in humans, a priori? Common descent.