French Hope for Cure for all Cancers

Below is a recent article in the English Language paper here in France:
From ‘The Connexion’ February 2015, by OLIVER ROWLAND

The doctor leading a pioneering cancer research team in Nice has told Connexion how they believe they have found a cure for all cancer types. Dr Nicole Wagner said: "Everyone is very excited because we see now one could treat every cancer type. There are no exceptions, even leukaemia, where there is no tumour, could be treated”. It follows trials carried out in Japan on people with advanced cancers, which markedly extended the lives of patients given just months to live. Some cancers "completely regressed”. Dr Wagner says it can be called 'a cure', especially if in future it is administered in a faster-acting form she is working on and as early as possible.

The discovery centres on a gene which her latest research suggests is crucial to factors common to all cancers - the development of vessels to supply blood to the tumour and suppression of immune system responses that normally kill cancerous cells. The team previously found it to be active in the actual cancer cells of many (not all) cancers, making them multiply and spread to other body areas. Dr Wagner said the full importance of the role of the gene, known as WTI, which she has been working on for several years, has only just emerged. The Japanese trials which built on Dr Wagner's initial findings centred on a vaccine to help patient's bodies tight WTI - and the results have been described as "spectacular".

More trials are now planned in Nice and work is also starting in the city to develop a drug to directly stop WT I's action for a faster effect. Dr Wagner said the Japanese are "very excited" by her latest findings, which show more patients than previously thought could benefit. "They are thinking of vaccination for all cancer patients. I'm working with them to establish vaccine trials here in Nice as soon as possible, but I'm also trying to identify a substance that directly represses WTI. I think it will take about 10 years to develop a drug". Vaccine trials are also under way in Germany and Belgium and a large one is starting in London.

Dr Wagner said the breakthrough could help not only those cancers where the WT1 gene is active in the actual cancer cells but every type of cancer. "They all have vessels and involve suppression of the immune system. This is completely general. The best results would be if it is treated in the very early stage — it is more difficult once the cancer has metastasised (spread)”, she said. Tests by her team on mice (involving knocking out WT1 by genetic modification) have shown "complete tumour regression".

She added: "For the moment, based on my findings and the findings in Japan, I would call this a cure”. Nice-Matin medical writer Nancy Cattan, a former cancer researcher, said: "If this works it's going to revolutionise cancer treatment. I've never been so shaken up about a discovery. This is the most promising cancer research. It's the first time we have a treatment that attacks a target which controls everything that makes a cancer dangerous". She added: "There would be far fewer side effects than current treatments. Most act on the proliferation of cells, and in the body it's not just cancerous cells that proliferate, there's also digestive cells, immune system ones etc. Classic chemotherapy affects the whole organism, weakening everything because it's all attacked at the same time. Here you're attacking a precise target which isn't active elsewhere in the body." Dr Wagner, who works with her husband Dr Kay-Dietrich Wagner, initially helped discover the role of WT1 in allowing embryos to develop rapidly, leading her to wonder if it might have a similar effect on cancers. Ms Cattan said: "In the embryo, everything multiplies, tissue moves around, blood vessels move into place - it's all controlled by this gene”.

For those who prefer to follow a link;
https://sites.google.com/site/ee ... ive-long/cancer/fre nchhopeforcureforallcancers

抑制WT1药物，估计要10年。。。。
加油吧~