Hanoi (VNS/VNA) – Vietnam has begun implementing gene and immunecell therapies, with the goal of tailoring cancer treatments to individualpatients.

According to Ta Thanh Van, Vice Principal of the Hanoi Medical University(HMU), the university has successfully applied gene therapy in Duchennemuscular dystrophy treatment. At present, they are adopting immune cell therapytechnology to treat cancer.

With the success in receiving and applying the Japanese-transferred celltechnology, the university has proposed a plan to implement it in publichospitals to the Ministry of Health. This will lay a foundation to develophigher technologies including recombinant DNA technology and immune celltherapy.

Immune cell therapy, developed over the past decade, aims to rebalance andincrease the strength of immune responses to effectively kill cancer cells.

When patients suffer from cancer, abnormal cells form, causing an immune systemimbalance. Normally, the human body can detect the imbalance and find a way toblock and kill those cells. However, the weakened immune system cannot preventabnormal cells from developing and forming tumors.

The immune cell therapy requires drawing blood from patients and separating outthe major immune cells of a patient (T cells). Next, using a disarmed virus,the T-cells are genetically engineered to produce receptors on their surface.These special receptors allow the T-cells to recognize and attach to a specificprotein, or antigen, on tumor cells. After that, the cells are grown inthe laboratory into the hundreds of millions. The final step is the infusion ofthe T-cells into the patient. If all goes as planned, the engineered cellsfurther multiply in the patient’s body and, with guidance from their engineeredreceptor, recognise and kill cancer cells that harbor the antigen on theirsurfaces.

In Vietnam, one method of high-tech targeted treatment uses “small-moleculedrugs” which can block the process that helps cancer cells multiply andspread. They work by targeting specific genes or proteins found in cancer cellsor in cells related to cancer growth.

Targeted therapy depends on the responsiveness of individual patients’ cancerpatients. Some patients can adapt to it well while others cannot. Targetedtherapy fails to succeed in over 30 percent of patients.

Therefore, patients need to take a genetic test to evaluate the state of theircancer cells before any treatment. HMU is the pioneer in implementing thistechnique in Vietnam.

So far, targeted therapy has brought about positive results. The first andsecond-generation drugs are covered by the social insurance programme.-VNA