China-New Zealand joint venture to fight cancer with new tre

WELLINGTON, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand and Chinese scientists are to work together on creating a revolutionary new treatment for cancer.

The treatment would develop and try cancer immunotherapies in a New Zealand-based joint venture, the independent Wellington-based Malaghan Institute of Medical Research said Tuesday.

The institute had signed a letter of intent with the Hunan Medical Research Group, based in the central China city of Changsha, to develop new CAR-T cell therapies against cancer.

CAR-T cell therapies involve modifying patients' immune cells (T cells) in the laboratory to redirect them against cancer cells.

The modified T cells are then returned to the patient, where they could attack and destroy cancer cells.

"The Malaghan Institute of Medical Research has special laboratories for the production of patient-specific immune treatments, and experience in running clinical trials in this area," project leader Dr Robert Weinkove, clinical director of Malaghan's Human Immunology Laboratory, said in a statement.

"We are very excited at the prospect of bringing CAR-T cell therapies to New Zealand, as these treatments hold great potential."