Immunotherapy Trials Reveal New Paths to Cancer Cure

In the winter of 2013, Sue Scott, then 36, had already planned her own funeral.

Her cervical cancer was spreading fast. Multiple rounds of chemotherapy, radiation and surgery had all failed. Tumors were invading her liver and colon, and squeezing her ureters.

Her last chance was to enroll in an experimental trial in which doctors were trying to partially replace patients' immune systems with T-cells that would specifically attack cancers caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), a common sexually transmitted infection.

Within a few months, her tumors completely disappeared.

This March, she celebrated five years cancer-free and according to her doctors appears to be fully cured.

The trial at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, a US government-funded research hospital, was a breakthrough because it offered the first evidence that immunotherapy, which has already seen some success in blood cancers and melanoma, could work against cervical cancer.

A closer examination of why Scott's cells worked so well has also led to a new discovery that may be helpful in killing other kinds of solid tumors.

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