A team of researchers have said that they have tested a new drug that has helped healthy cells kill prostate cancer.

They said that prostate cancer resistant to treatment couldbe eliminated with the help of a new therapy that boosts the immune system. They carried out tests in combination with chemotherapy drugs and achieved almost complete remission in mice. They used low doses of the drug oxaliplatin that has the ability to activate cancer-killing immune cells in small tumours but works less well in large and aggressive tumours.

The issue is due to immune system ‘B-cells’ that affects body’s defences in prostate and other cancers.The researchers have now developed a way of blocking the development or function of these B-cells and removed them entirely before using oxaliplatin.The prostate tumours were ‘almost completely destroyed’ by the mice’s own immune cells.

Lead scientist ShabnamShalapour, of the University of California at San Diego, said: ‘The presence of such B-cells in human prostate cancer calls for clinical testing of this novel therapeutic approach.’ The teary first eliminates ‘B-cells’ and then use drugs to boost healthy cells to kill cancer cells.