T-Cells

[[Two people are standing facing each other, having a conversation. One is holding a laptop.]] Person #1 (with laptop): What's the deal with this leukemia trial? {{Citation: Nejm, Aug 10, 2011}} Person #2: Gotta wait and see. Person #2: Helping the immune system attack tumors has been a longtime research target. Person #2: Lots of promising leads. Often they don't pan out. Person #1: What'd these guys do? Person #2: They took some of the patient's T-cells and patched their genes so they'd attack the cancer. That hasn't been enough in the past but their patch also added code to get the T-cells to replicate wildly and persist in the body. Person #1: Which worked, but created its own set of problems? Person #2: How'd you guess? But I think the craziest part is the way they insert the patched genes. Person #1: How? Person #2: Well, think - What specializes in invading and modifying T-cells? Person #1: Seriously? Person #2: Yup. Must've been a fun conversation. [[The last panel is set in a doctors office. A patient is sitting on the observation bed talking to their doctor.]] Patient: Ok, so I have blood cells growing out of control, so you're going to give me different blood cells that *also* grow out of control? Doctor: Yes, but it's ok, because we've treated *this* blood with HIV! Patient: Are you sure you're a doctor? Doctor: Almost definitely. {{Title text: 'We're not sure how to wipe out the chimeral T-cells after they've destroyed the cancer. Though I do have this vial of smallpox ...'}}

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