Stanford University said the drug combination worked 'startlingly well'

A cancer jab that can eliminate tumours even when they have spread throughout the body is about to start human trials.

Scientists at Stanford University in the US found that injecting tiny amounts of two drugs directly into a tumour not only kills the original cancer, but also triggers an ‘amazing bodywide’ reaction which destroys distant cancer cells.

The drug combination works by switching on immune cells inside the tumours which have been deactivated by the cancer, then boosting them so they can go to work killing the disease.

And once the immune cells have been reactivated, they recognise other cancer cells elsewhere in the body and set about clearing them out.

Scientists said the therapy worked ‘startlingly well’ in mice. Nine out of 10 animals were cured of cancer after just one jab, and the rest after a second injection.

"When we use these two agents together, we see the elimination of tumors all over the body," said Dr Ronald Levy, Professor of Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine.

"Our approach uses a one-time application of very small amounts of two agents to stimulate the immune cells only within the tumor itself. In the mice, we saw amazing, bodywide effects, including the elimination of tumors all over the animal.

"I don't think there's a limit to the type of tumor we could potentially treat, as long as it has been infiltrated by the immune system.”

In numbers | Cancer in the UK

The new injection could have dramatic implications because it cures cancer even after it has spread.

Around 360,000 people are diagnosed with cancer in Britain each year and only half will survive for 10 years. However if cancer spreads, or metastasizes, the outlook is far more bleak. For example, although half of people with early stage lung cancer can expect to live for five years, but if it spreads to other parts of the body that falls to just four per cent.

Researchers are now recruiting patients to test the drug combination but believe it will be a cheap and effective way of fighting multiple types of cancer. The process is likely to take less time because one drug in the cocktail is already approved for use in humans, while the other is currently undergoing human trials.

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And unlike other forms of immunotherapy, it is likely to have few side effects. Most similar drugs work by cutting the brakes on the immune system, but the downside to that is it also kills healthy cells.

Dr Ronald Levy, Professor of Medicine at Stanford University

However the new treatment harnesses the immune system’s own ability to recognise cancer cells and infiltrate tumours.

As a tumour grows, it often devises a way to suppress the activity of ‘killer’ immune cells which get inside, but the new drug combination effectively reawakens those cells.

Those cancer-specific cells can then leave the original tumour site and travel through the body to fight other disease sites.

In mice studies, 87 out of 90 mice with breast, colon and melanoma tumours were cured of their cancer, and although tumours returned in three animals, a second jab was able to halt the disease.

The left scan shows untreated tumours vanishing after one injection Credit: Stanford University School of Medicine

The researchers say in future doctors could inject a tumour before it was removed so that the body could get to work fighting unidentified cancer elsewhere.

Dr Catherine Pickworth from Cancer Research UK, said: “This early research in mice suggests that this could be an effective way of engaging the immune system to tackle cancer.

“These types of treatments are exciting but can be complicated - one of the biggest challenges of immunotherapies is predicting how they will work with patients’ immune systems, and understanding what the side effects could be.

“The next stage will be to test whether this is both a safe and effective way to treat the disease in people, using clinical trials.”

The research was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.