A PIONEERING new treatment for cancer which uses patients own cells to attack the disease is being trialled in Scotland.

Authorisation has been granted for the research which will see patients suffering from three different kinds of cancer undergo the therapy.

The treatment involves a type of white blood cell which naturally battles cancer, but which struggles to fight the disease when it starts taking hold. The cells are known as gamma delta T-cells.

TC BioPharm chief executive Dr Michael Leek, whose Scottish company which has brought the treatment to the UK, said: “These cells are amazing because they have the ability to detect cells that have been transformed by cancer and then attack them and kill them.”

In Japan, he said, they have been extracting gamma delta T-cells from patients, growing them in “massive numbers” in strict laboratory conditions, activating them so they are particularly aggressive and then injecting them back into the cancer sufferers.

TC BioPharm has launched with the help of Scottish Enterprise to bring this treatment to the UK.

It has established the necessary clean rooms for growing the cells just outside Glasgow and patients from the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre will be the first to start receiving the treatment when the trial kicks off later this year. More sufferers will also be recruited in Edinburgh and Southampton.

Patients with skin cancer, lung cancer and kidney cancer will all be targeted in the trial. The numbers will be small – around 15 from Glasgow – and all those involved will have already tried other treatments for their disease.

Each patient will have the special cells extracted once. Then when large numbers of the cells have been grown from this sample, and activated, they will be injected into them using an infusion system, like a drip. They are expected to receive six infusions over three months.

Dr Leek said one of the real attractions of the treatment was that it used patients' own cells and it had a strong safety record in Japan.

“The components we use to expand the cells and stimulate them are not toxic,” he said. “However, when you inject a large number of these cells into the patient they have fatigue or nausea for 24 hours or so. There have been no adverse events related to this treatment.”

The UK Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has granted authorisation for the trial which will eventually be extended to reach more than 200 patients in a range different cities.

The treatment, called ImmuniCell, is also said to have the potential to tackle major viral infections such as severe influenza, HIV and Ebola.

In the last 18 months staff numbers at TC BioPharm have grown from two to 25. Dr Leek said receiving approval for the trial catapulted the firm to the “forefront of UK cell therapy”. He continued: “This is largely due to the expertise, loyalty and passion of our dedicated staff; and sustained, unwavering support from Scottish Enterprise, without whom we could not have progressed so rapidly to clinic.”

Dr Karen Williams, TCB’s director of clinical studies, said: “MHRA approval of our Clinical Trial Authorisation is an important milestone for TC BioPharm – we can now realise our goal of treating cancer patients with the aim of significantly improving their health and quality of life.”

Professor Jeff Evans, director of the institute of cancer sciences at Glasgow University, is chief investigator on the project. He said there is currently intense focus on harnessing the immune system to treat cancer and TC BioPharm’s approach represented “a new way of trying to manipulate the immune system to eradicate cancer cells.”

Further regulatory approvals are required before the Glasgow patients can begin receiving treatment, but the trial is expected to start before Christmas. Professor Evans said: “It will be exciting to see the results.”