At last! Scientists create cancer-killing cells

Scientists have created cells capable of killing cancer for the first time. Pictured: microscopic cells being cultured to kill cancer

 At last, scientists have created cells capable of killing cancer for the first time.

The awesome and dramatic breakthrough was made by researchers in Japan who created cancer-specific killer T cells.

They say the development paves the way for the cells to be injected directly into cancer patients for therapy.

The cells naturally occur in small numbers, but it is hoped injecting huge amounts back into a patient could turbo-charge the immune system.

Researchers at the RIKEN Research Centre for Allergy and Immunology revealed they have succeeded, for the first time, in creating cancer-specific, immune system cells called killer T lymphocytes.

To create these, the team first had to re-programme T lymphocytes specialized in killing a certain type of cancer, into another type of cell called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells). 

These iPS cells then generated fully active, cancer-specific T lymphocytes.

These lymphocytes regenerated from iPS cells could potentially serve as cancer therapy in the future.

Previous research has shown that killer T lymphocytes produced in the lab using conventional methods are inefficient in killing cancer cells mainly because they have a very short life-span, which limits their use as treatment for cancer.