A 10-Year Battle Ends: New Cancer Treatment Discovered in Germany

Doctors in Heidelberg, Germany, have reported a groundbreaking case where a teenager’s tumor completely disappeared following experimental immune cell therapy, as reported by DW.

Currently, no living cancer cells have been detected in the 17-year-old patient's body. The treatment was conducted at the Hopp-Kindertumorzentrum (KiTZ) in Heidelberg. According to the Rheinische Post, the teenager named Milo, from Thuringia, had been battling cancer for nearly a decade. Originally diagnosed with a malignant kidney tumor, the disease later spread to his liver, spleen, lungs, and brain, despite multiple surgeries and chemotherapy.

As a final resort, an individually approved experimental immune cell therapy was chosen. According to Dr. Christian Seitz, head of the Cell and Gene Therapy division, a specific protein was identified on the patient's tumor cells. This allowed doctors to genetically modify the patient’s own T-cells to recognize and destroy these specific cancer cells.

The process was as follows:

• Immune cells were extracted from the teenager’s blood.
• The cells were genetically engineered in a laboratory.
• The modified T-cells were infused back into the patient’s body.

Remarkable Results

The infusion of the modified T-cells took place on July 2, 2025. The results were exceptionally rapid:

• After 12 days: MRI scans showed that the initial tumor clusters began to disappear.
• After 120 days: No living cancer cells could be detected in the body.

Medical experts emphasize that this case represents a fundamentally new step for pediatric oncology. Previously, cellular immune therapy was officially used in children almost exclusively for treating leukemia (blood cancer). This success marks a historic shift in treating solid tissue tumors in young patients.