Another clear scan!

Quent had another scan on Wednesday in Manchester. He drove up via Barnsley to pick me up and we had a very pretty drive across the Pennines. The scan was clear - for the fourth time in a row. Three cheers for IL-2, the Christie and the Prof.

Prof had timed the scan so that we could go to the opening of the new Cellular Therapeutic Unit - the new epicentre of T-Cell treatment. Manchester is collaborating with a few other centres in the world (Amsterday, Tel Aviv, Washington) to develop the science behind this new treatment. Although early days, the trials are looking promising.

How it works (maybe!): If I have understood correctly, they take cancerous cells from your body. They identify the cells which are fighting the cancer - but are not numerous enough to kill it. They then grow loads of these cells and put them back into your body. No problem with the body rejecting the new cells as they are clones of your own. (I hope I am getting this right. I have a habit of getting science wildly wrong and Quent often has to gently correct my version of events for Oakley.) And when I say "loads", I mean loads - 10 billion cells are returned to the patient.

Prof also updated us on the IL-2 trials he has done. He hasn't yet published the results so I'd better not blurt them out on this blog, but they were very impressive. Great "complete response" rates. On the way back to Barnsley, my main concern was how they are going to cope with demand as soon as they publish. Not everyone will qualify for treatment (in terms of fitness / histology etc) but I reckon the Christie will need extra staff just to deal with the enquiries.

So, a great trip north all round. Although we hope and pray that every one of Quent's scans is clear from now on, it is also very, very reassuring to hear how quickly other treatments are being trialed. And it's lovely to know that the money raised by the boys' p*** up round Europe has gone to such a worthy cause.