Penn Researcher Named Among Men's Health "Heroes of Health and Fitness"

Carl June, MD, the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and director of Translational Research in Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center, was named to the #1 slot on Men's Health magazine's annual "Heroes of Health & Fitness" list for his team's work engineering leukemia patients' own immune cells to fight their cancer.

Watch Carl June, MD, talk about the groundbreaking study that made him #1 on the list.


Learn more about T-Cell Immunotherapy for Leukemia.

Read the full article, as well as who else made Men’s Health 2012 Heroes of Health and Fitness list.

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Immunotherapy and Leukemia

A front-page story in the New York Times details the progress of a Perelman School of Medicine team in using genetically engineered versions of leukemia patients' own T cells to fight their cancer; an approach which has now been used in 12 patients, 9 of whom responded to the therapy -- including two children.

"Our goal is to have a cure, but we can't say that word," said the study's leader, Carl June, MD, the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and director of Translational Research in Penn's Abramson Cancer Center.

He hopes the new treatment will eventually replace bone-marrow transplantation, an even more arduous, risky and expensive procedure that is now the last hope when other treatments fail in leukemia and related diseases.

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