An announcement story about a ingenious and promising line of research for cancer treatment, using gene therapy to adapt normal blood T-cells to attack melanoma cells. True, only two patients made startling recoveries that have lasted a year and a half (there was no rush to issue these findings). Intelligent and clear, this article cites one fellow researcher also impressed with the results, and offers links to the study itself, and the National Cancer Institute's Webpage about such gene therapy. The writer does presuppose a certain level of knowledge in the reader: you may have to look up "retrovirus," as I did (and then try to wrap your brain's T-cells around it); and it helps to understand the mechanism by which ... More »

As far as I can tell, the piece is an accurate summary of the actual research. However, I find it too much of a "marketing piece" for a scientific journal. The writer should have been more cautious about not raising (possibly false) hope, and included a cursory discussion of the technique used and the 15 failures. For a more complete account, I recommend the piece in the International Herald Tribune (see Related Links).