In a first for gene therapy, researchers have successfully treated cancer patients by genetically modifying their immune cells to attack tumors. Although the treatment worked in only two of 17 patients, the researchers say this proof of concept, reported online today in Science, should pave the way for more gene-therapy cancer cures. Steven Rosenberg's group at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Maryland, has been working on ways to rev up immune cells to vanquish cancer for 2 decades. A few years ago, the researchers removed tumor-attacking immune cells called T cells from melanoma patients, grew more in the...