Medical Breakthroughs: Doctors turn tumor cells against cancer cells [Video]

There’s a type of brain tumor that’s really common and treatment has stayed the same for years.

Now, researchers are looking at ways to make a person’s own body attack the tumor.

“My hand, my finger, two fingers got numb,” Fran Noonan said.

Those were the first signs something was wrong with Noonan. Not long after, she was diagnosed with a Glioblastoma.

“They gave me anywhere from six months to 14 months to live,” Noonan said.

The standard of care for these types of brain tumors hasn’t changed in almost 20 years, odds of long-term survival are slim.

“It’s about a hundred percent recurrence rate, and it usually occurs around the nine-month mark,” Neurosurgical Oncologist Dominque Higgins said.

Now, a team at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill is hoping to turn the patient’s own immune system against the tumors.

“It’s an interesting approach to, essentially, a personalized …