Fight Aging!

A strategy analogous to early stage stem cell therapies is showing promise for immunotherapy. From the Telegraph: "Cancer patients could have immune cells removed and cultivated in piglets before being injected back into them to boost the body's natural defences ... The new stem cells, which would then be implanted back into the patient, could even be modified in the piglet so as to boost their disease fighting powers, experts believe. They said the new system could mark a major breakthrough in the process which is known as cell transfer immunotherapy or T-cell treatment. ... Immunotherapy is thought to work because usually there are too few of the cells naturally in a patient's body to fight cancer effectively but by boosting them, it boosts natural defences. In its most successful use to date one American patient suffering from advanced skin cancer even made a full recovery following the treatment. This was even though the disease had already spread to the lymph nodes and lungs." The use of pigs solves a problem of cost: culturing immune cells is still very challenging, and thus expensive and even impossible for some patients.

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/10/15/scipigs115.xml