Immune system designed to kill cancer

At first,nothing happened. But after 10 days,hell broke loose in his hospital room. He began shaking with chills. His temperature shot up. His blood pressure shot down. He became so ill that doctors moved him into intensive care and warned that he might die. A few weeks later,the fevers were gone. And so was the leukemia.

There was no trace of it anywhere no leukemic cells in his blood or bone marrow,no more bulging lymph nodes on his CT scan. His doctors calculated that the treatment had killed off two pounds of cancer cells.

A year later,Ludwig is still in complete remission. Before,there were days when he could barely get out of bed; now,he plays golf and does yard work.

Ludwigs doctors have not claimed that he is cured nor have they declared victory over leukemia on the basis of this experiment,which involved only three patients. The research,they say,has far to go.

But scientists say the treatment that helped Ludwig,described recently in The New England Journal of Medicine and Science Translational Medicine,may signify a turning point in the long struggle to develop effective gene therapies against cancer. The novel approach employs a disabled form of H.I.V.-1,the virus that causes AIDS,to carry cancer-fighting genes into the patients T-cells.

Two other patients have undergone the experimental treatment. One had a partial remission. Another had a complete remission. All three had had advanced chronic lymphocytic leukemia and had run out of chemotherapy options. DENISE GRADY