Researchers Successfully Fight Colon Cancer Using Immunotherapy

Slashdot reader schwit1 quotes the New York Times:
The remarkable recovery of a woman with advanced colon cancer, after treatment with cells from her own immune system, may lead to new options for thousands of other patients with colon or pancreatic cancer, researchers are reporting. (Shorter non-paywalled version of the article here). Her treatment was the first to successfully target a common cancer mutation that scientists have tried to attack for decades… so resistant to every attempt at treatment that scientists have described it as "undruggable"… The researchers analyze tumors for mutations — genetic flaws that set the cancer cells apart from normal ones. They also study tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, looking for immune cells that can recognize mutations and therefore attack cancerous cells but leave healthy ones alone. The patient, a 50-year-old database programmer in Michigan, is now cancer-free, according to the article. "Researchers twice denied her request to enter the clinical trial, saying her tumors were not large enough, she said. But she refused to give up and was finally let in."
The treatment ultimately eliminated six of her seven tumors, and because it targeted a cell mutation that’s common in colon cancer patients, "Researchers say they now have a blueprint that may enable them to develop cell treatments for other patients as well."