Results of an intermediate stage clinical trial of several dozen people provides evidence that a method that has worked for treating patients with metastatic melanoma can also work for patients with metastatic synovial cell sarcoma, one of the most common soft tissue tumors in adolescents and young adults. This study is the first to use genetically modified immune cells, in a technique known as adoptive therapy, to cause cancer regression in patients with a solid cancer as opposed to melanoma. This approach represents a method for obtaining immune cells from any cancer patient and converting them into ones that can recognize cancer cells expressing the target antigen, NY-ESO-1, according to researchers at the National Cancer Institute.

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