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2012 was an exciting year for the Abramson Cancer Center. We are featuring blogs featured on the Focus On Cancer blog that highlight cancer treatment breakthroughs, coping tips and ideas, education and inspiration. Today, we are highlighting the immunotherapy and leukemia.

A front-page story in the New York Times details the progress of a Perelman School of Medicine team in using genetically engineered versions of leukemia patients' own T cells to fight their cancer; an approach which has now been used in 12 patients, 9 of whom responded to the therapy -- including two children.

Immunotherapy for Leukemia

A front-page story in the New York Times details the progress of a Perelman School of Medicine team in using genetically engineered versions of leukemia patients' own T cells to fight their cancer; an approach which has now been used in 12 patients, 9 of whom responded to the therapy -- including two children.

"Our goal is to have a cure, but we can't say that word," said the study's leader, Carl June, MD, the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and director of Translational Research in Penn's Abramson Cancer Center.

He hopes the new treatment will eventually replace bone-marrow transplantation, an even more arduous, risky and expensive procedure that is now the last hope when other treatments fail in leukemia and related diseases.

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