7 Healthcast: Cancer research

A Rhode Island research center says they're working on a project that could lead to a cure for some cancer patients.

It looks like a typical medical lab - but the work here is anything but typical.

Researchers here are trying to find a cure for a disease that has none.

Dr. Richard Junghans, researcher
"And right now with the recent award which we got, I think we have a decent chance of doing it."

 A decent chance of curing metastatic breast cancer - that's cancer that has spread.

So what they're working with are t-cells.

Dr. Richard Junghans, researcher
"T-cells are our own normal white blood cells that evolve to kill virus infected cells."

Like the influenza virus, check this out.

Dr. Richard Junghans, researcher
"This shows a t-cell, a small cell here attached to a virus infected cell and the t-cell's doing a lot of signaling through its surface and putting holes in the cell and poof, you see like that it goes up and explodes and now the cell shrinks."

And it dies; problem is our own t-cells don't recognize cancer cells.

Dr. Richard Junghans, researcher
"So our goal with this new technology is to fool the t-cells in to thinking the cancer has a virus infection."

So far in the lab, so good.

Dr. Richard Junghans, researcher
"We can cure cancer in mice."

Now Dr. Richard Junghans says it's ready for prime time to be tested on patients.

That will involve removing T-cells from the patient.

Dr. Richard Junghans, researcher
"And then we manipulate them in the laboratory using gene therapy techniques to modify them -- we expand them and then re-introduce them back to the patient and hopefully they'll go as little marauders throughout the body anywhere the cancer is to eliminate it and cure the patient in the same way that a virus infection is cured."

The doctor is working to recruit patients - with this form of breast cancer.

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