Cancer sufferers were today offered new hope with a groundbreaking magic gene treatment developed in Oxford, writes Maggie Hartford.

The new therapy will be tested on volunteer patients within 18 months. And Oxford Biomedica hopes it will be available in as little as six years.

It is the first time that a patient's immune system cells, called macrophages, will be used to carry anti-cancer genes to the heart of a tumour.

The company's chief executive, Prof Alan Kingsman, said: "We have a unique position in this. This is exciting because it is always a challenge to find a way of selectively killing cancer cells but not normal cells. It is a device for homing in on tumours. The nearest analogy I can give is to a bone-marrow transplant, but it would be a lot simpler than that." Under the proposed treatment, a cancer sufferer first gives blood. The immune system cells are then removed from the blood and the anti-cancer gene put in.

A few days later, the blood is put back into the patient, triggering genes at the core of the tumour to create a special enzyme, a protein which makes the treatment work.

When the patient begins taking chemotherapy tablets, the drug is activated by the enzyme in the tumour but not elsewhere in the body, making the treatment less debilitating.

Prof Kingsman said the gene was being used in the company's cancer treatment MetXia-P450, now being tested on breast cancer patients. He added: "These results show that targeting may be feasible as a treatment for diseases associated with reduced oxygen levels, including cancer and cardiovascular disease, and inflammatory diseases such as arthritis."

Oxford Biomedica, an Oxford University spin-off company based at Oxford Science Park, was set up five years ago by Prof Kingsman and his wife, Sue.

The company's shares leapt when recent research results were announced.

Last month, when it successfully raised another £5m on the stock market, the share issue was four times oversubscribed.

Story date: Friday 04 February

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