(September 12, 2011 | The New York Times) MAJOR ADVANCE: An Immune System Trained to Kill Cancer PHILADELPHIA — A year ago, when chemotherapy stopped working against his leukemia, William Ludwig signed up to be the first patient treated in a bold experiment at the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Ludwig, then 65, a retired corrections officer from Bridgeton, N.J., felt his life draining away and thought he had nothing to lose. Dr. Bruce Levine lifted cells from a freezer in his lab in Philadelphia last week. Doctors removed a billion of Ludwig’s T-cells – a type of white blood cell that fights viruses and tumors – and gave them new genes that would program the cells to attack his cancer. Then the altered cells were dripped back into Mr. Ludwig’s veins. A few weeks later, the fevers were gone. And so was the leukemia. A year later, Mr. Ludwig is still in complete remission. “I have my life back,” he said. But scientists say the treatment that helped Mr. Ludwig may signify a turning point in the long struggle to develop effective gene therapies against cancer. And not just for leukemia patients: other cancers may also be vulnerable to this novel approach. Other experts in the field said the results were a major advance. “It’s great work,” said Dr. Walter J. Urba of the Providence Cancer Center. He called the patients’ recoveries remarkable, exciting and significant. “I feel very positive about this new technology. Conceptually, it’s very, very big.”

- Predicted in January 2011 newsletter Futurescope.