Cancer sufferers could be treated with immune cells from donors resistant to the diseases, according to scientists.

The US Food and Drug Administration has given researchers permission to test the experimental treatment on human beings.

Dr Zheng Cui, of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina, has shown that immune cells from some people may effectively fight cancer in others.

Using blood samples from more than a hundred people, immune cells called granulocytes, which are already used to boost people’s immune systems after they are depleted by chemotherapy, were mixed with cervical cancer cells.

The immune cells from one individual killed 97 per cent of cancer cells in 24 hours, while those from another healthy donor only killed about 2 per cent.

“Our hope is that this could be a cure,” said Dr Cui. “Our preclinical tests have been exceptionally successful. If this is half as effective in humans as it is in mice it could be that half of patients could be cured or at least given one to two years extra of high-quality life.

“The technology needed to do this already exists, so if it works in humans we could save a lot of lives, and we could be doing so within two years.”

Everyone has some ability to fight cancer through immune cells called NK cells which can identify and kill tumours – although the extent of these cells’ influence is not known.

The ability to kill cancer cells appeared to be lower among when the blood samples had been taken from people over the age of 50 and even lower in people with cancer. It also fell when people were under stress and during the winter.

The technique follows research last year which found white blood cells from mice resistant to cancer successfully treated advanced tumours in ordinary laboratory mice.

Dr Cui will match immune cells from donors to cancer patients by blood type, and hopes to begin human trials in the US next summer, according to New Scientist magazine.

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