A new cancer treatment with promising results for patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma may also be the key to fighting other forms of cancer.

The treatment boosts the strength of the patient's immune system by interacting with T cells, which in turn fight the cancerous cells in the body.  The drug, Blinatumomab, was administered in small daily doses.  Giving a patient as little as 0.005mg of Blinatumomab per day eliminated some cancerous cells in the blood, and tumours shrank or disappeared completely with 0.015mg.

Four out of 38 trial participants were left disease-free after the study.  One of the patients has survived over a year without any signs of the cancer.

Because the drug worked by interacting with the immune system, there is belief that the treatment can work for other, and perhaps any, form of cancer.  Chief Clinician of Cancer Research UK Peter Johnson said, "These exciting preliminary results come from using them to harness the body's own immune responses in a new way. Although the side effects need to be monitored carefully we hope that this type of treatment will prove to be effective in larger trials in the future."

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