A six-year-long study has shown that immunotherapy can cure Tasmanian devils of the deadly devil facial tumour disease (DFTD).

Researchers used immunotherapy on devils with golf-ball sized tumours and observed the tumours gradually shrinking and disappearing over three months.

“This is almost a Eureka moment for us because it’s the first time we can say for sure that it was the immunotherapy that was making the tumour shrink,” said research leader Professor Greg Woods.

The project involved years of incremental advances. This breakthrough is the next step on from work published in 2015 that showed that the devil’s immune system was capable of mounting an immune response to DFTD.

The latest work shows that the devil’s immune system is its best ally against DFTD.

“This is an important step along the way to developing a vaccine to protect against DFTD and potentially for immunotherapy to cure devils of established DFTD,” Professor Woods said.

The results confirmed that it is possible to trigger the devil’s immune system to recognise and destroy established DFTD tumours.

“Our research shows that a DFTD vaccine is feasible. We are focusing our efforts on developing strategies to improve the devils’ response to immunisation,” said Dr Cesar Tovar, the lead author on the latest paper.

The research was published in Scientific Reports. It was funded by the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council and the WellcomeTrust, with additional support from the University of Tasmania Foundation through funds raised by the Save the Tasmanian Devil Appeal.

Professor Woods said the support of the Save the Tasmanian Devil Appeal was critical for ongoing work.

The study is accessible here.