it was a setback to democracy the opposition shouted slogans before the session was temporarily suspended and they walked out in protest. groups eisel and hezbollah prisoners near the province of darrow's or in syria they agreed to release them as part of a ceasefire deal two weeks ago meanwhile syrian government troops are advancing further into i still held territory around arizona's city oil rich area seen as strategic for both russian backed syrian troops and u.s. backed opposition fighters. more talks to end the war in syria set to begin on the sixth round of talks in a standoff brokered by russia turkey and iran the aimed at implementing lasting cease fire and so-called deescalation of brazil for president listen a salute to silva is being questioned again by the country's top anticorruption judge moon as the front runner in next year's brazilian election he's facing multiple charges for allegedly accepting bribes the same judge sentenced him to

more than nine years in jail in july for a seat in bribes but those are the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after techno stating by the. witness documentaries that open your eyes at this time on al jazeera. like a cancer diagnosis that used to leave little room for hope. says the eighteen hundreds doctor suspected the body's immune system might told to chill for this stuff and disease. but no one could crack the complex code and until this scientists did. now this is the new face of cancer patients who are living proof of a cure. this is technically a show about innovations that changed nights we're going to explore the

intersection of hardware and humanity and we're doing it in the unique way this is a show about science by scientists. and welcome to tech there in paris i'm dr judy for mara and way of hair but it's them incredible work that is helping to fight and even cure cancer it's called i mean i fare a pain and it's a cancer treatment that turns the body's own cells into to michaela. i mean i thought r.p. is an innovative field of research and is changing lives all over the world but we follow one man's amazing journey for tech nerds here's dr crystal de while. david white is about to do something he has done more than one hundred and twenty times. come from anchorage alaska every two weeks he will leave his home

in one of the most remote american cities and fly more than five thousand kilometers to houston texas. treatment i believe that. gets my plane at five in the morning and back. and forty four hours two days. away. it is a better life and death. david isn't rolled in an experimental cancer program at m.d. anderson cancer center in houston texas it has kept him alive well beyond the prediction his doctors once gave at the beginning you didn't think that you would be able to have such a thing. in the beginning the best anybody would get maybe. twelve to twenty months i didn't get the much time to get your affairs in order. and it certainly doesn't

give you time to. do what you want to do with your family and children. david has bladder cancer was first diagnosed in two thousand and ten when doctors found a small tumor on the wall of his bladder. it's pretty scary isn't it yeah i think it's a small it's less and i think on ball size they cut it out and you think it's through but you aren't we took this serious surgery we removed my bladder didn't work. we thought so but it didn't happen my cancer came back in here where it was wrapped around my colon and i had a big tumor. that was in two thousand and eleven david underwent chemotherapy and an experimental gene therapy treatment but the cancer kept spreading to his left lung in two thousand and thirteen then in june of two thousand and thirteen he began the experimental immunotherapy program now david has kept alive by his strong

will i think we better start. one thirty. and the drug in this infusion bag. nancy pinkston is on the same drug she was diagnosed with stage three melanoma in february two thousand and sixteen showering. and thought. and does not feel right dr calling on o'clock at night telling you it's not on. it it's a game changer that was almost a year ago. their labs looked perfect for me i wanted to live and i thought this was my best chance. is also part of an experimental therapy treatment at m.d. anderson she began treatments in march of two thousand and sixteen she had her

tumor removed surgically in may her oncologist dr hussein. thank you very very these treatments are you know absolute game changers and for nancy the change came quickly and i think. i think. it was at least thirty percent smaller and. it was a moment because i'm surprised how fast after one tree. sees such a big difference and the tumor one two pathology there was not a single viable so not a single cancer cell which is you know amazing. it is. and found that there were. a lot of the by. nancy first heard about immunotherapy when a former u.s. president announced he had melanoma that had spread to his brain and was being

treated with a hard to pronounce drug named elizabeth cohen all of you to remember that name. just a few months later president jimmy carter said he was cured when i went this week they didn't find any cancer at all but i have read there's. a striking difference for what jimmy carter thought. the same thing it's only playing for me some drugs different manufactures. this new wave of cancer fighting drugs called immunotherapy come in part from the lab and the brain of this scientist dr james alison and his partner dr. jim alison's breakthrough actually change the whole field i mean what he recognizes that time doesn't just have on switches it also has off switches that they hang in the yang and the man says that if you keep trying to turn it on it has its own internal

controls to keep it turned off and he recognized that if you want to really attack cancer you have to turn off the off signals the blocking the brakes basically and he developed the first body this way which is enticing tele for busy identify some telling for as the off signal are one of the off signals now we know there are so many and by blocking seitel it for what an antibody we were able to get the t. cells now to go and keep killing terrorist cells and that's why some patients can have. he's responsive so now there's a whole field called the mean checkpoint blockade and that's immunotherapy that we know of today in the clinic. the human immune system is built around white blood cells scientists call t. cells these molecules are so tiny they can't be seen by the human eye this image from an electron scan shows a healthy human. senses an infection it will attack but with many cancers t. cells won't attack because the tumour cells are blocking their talking mechanism.

immunotherapy overrides those blocking systems allowing t. cells to do their job. like a little more and yes it is i do think it's a war of the you know to timorous cells and the immune system are battling right the tumor cells are trying to get everything to surround the to protect it and then new system keeps trying to attack and then when the tumour cells have all of the right things to protect it they mean system is sort of disabled and it can no longer function and what we're trying to do is read energize the immune system so they can get through all the barriers that the two missiles are put up to kill those tumor cells cancer has largely been winning the immune system or until now we have clinical trials ongoing and prostate cancer bladder cancer kidney cancer leukemia for example c.l.o. for example lymphoma is. pancreatic cancer breast cancer color rectal cancer varying cancer so what you're trying to do with each type of

cancer is kind of tune that on off for the immune system and find that right balance for that cancer exactly and sometimes we don't find the right balance sharma and allison's lab is unique but more than eighty human clinical trials and thousands of patients they can test drug therapies and get immediate results from biopsies dr sharma is currently running a study on prostate cancer so far immunotherapy has not been effective but there is hope and so we got this. great i mean we're. trading. right. now this. expression. that. it's a protein that. scientists immune inhibitory. dr sharma showed us winning the war. drugs infiltrating the tumor but the.

expressed tumor was not shrinking and the cancer not going away all of these little blue dots are individual tumor cells and then over here on the side of all of these colors trying to fight the tumor but. fighting back at. that. point therapies are really block these off signals. because these are all off signals that are now been identified in the t. cells so we think we need combinations strategies for prostate cancer. you've got a pretty good understanding you know for example of prostate cancer we're just too quick response of for better. or improved we've generated. about charlotte where you should answer the question we have no answer for sure but

we've got some some ideas which are very strong. data from the patients. that we were. really instrumental in kind of elucidating those checks and balances that exist in the immune system. and how do you get from that to a therapy. undergraduate actually when i first read. literally right oh what was it about. just the whole no should you have the cells are you or your body or protect your whole you're so cool. astronomy that was i thought this might slow but to really good and we have to do a lot of combinations to get the word what it turned out in many terms you didn't have to just a single injection without a body that was so you and dr allison are married yet when you came to have your spouse in the lab with you working in the same field i think of myself as very

lucky you know i clearly am passionate about the work that we do jim and i talk about t. cells more than i think any two people in the whole world. you know we get up in the morning talking about it we go to sleep talking about it it's what drives us because a tremendous work week that immunotherapy is a new pillar and immune checkpoint therapy is really what is now showing all of this benefit we think other immunotherapy will do that as well including adopted t. cell therapy and these other ways of engineering the t. cells before giving them back to patients you wouldn't think of chemotherapy surgery radiation therapy without adding in immunotherapy anymore you've now changed that whole paradigm yes i'm i'm very proud i think you know it's his passion that i fell in love with to be honest and it's been his passion the drove the work he wanted to see whether or not what he did in the laboratory his basic science could have clinical impact and he drove that i have to say there were many

people who thought that all you're going to take an antibody and block this single molecule and you're going to treat cancer come on give me a break that's not going to work right he got a lot of rejections along the way and he stuck with it but it worked out for everyone not you know not just the science or his career but it worked out for so many patients. for some of those patients like david white life has been extended beyond what anyone imagined but it comes with the price you should come by. weekly they're paid for by the drug company sponsoring the study but the trips are tough all of this is emotionally hard i think emotions are harder than the physical part so you've had some pretty amazing results on this immunotherapy can you tell me about that. i just get lucky. i got response and six weeks to the a mentor and i haven't had a recurrence of my cancer in. two years at age seventy two two years have

made a huge difference. yes. and what do you want to do now. ok i gave up running but i still coach and read for you so. thanks again guys thank you yes joe young children were never far from his thoughts is hard to talk about. so when i got cancer nicholas was ten and. isabella was five you. know or you want to be with little kids. but they're a big part of my voted as should. do i get a hug before i leave. and i

felt like my job and. the necklace is now sixteen. he's enjoying your. and isabella going to be eleven end of this year and she's a greater big difference. i've been able to be and often have an influence on their development life quite a bit. and with the outcomes we've got right now i'm i'm hopeful that it's going to be a lot longer at least relative to this part of the disease. so i mean not only did he have a complete remission where we essentially cannot find the tumor back on c.t. imaging he's had a very long term durable remission that's now ongoing for more than two years of

treatment for his labs and the other types of reports that you look at do they look very similar to someone of his age that never was diagnosed with cancer. over time have become more normal more what i've seen in the typical population and so clearly the effects of them you know their b. are certainly relevant they help him he's feeling better he's doing better and his cancer is under control what percentage of the patients in your trial sort of experience this miraculous recovery so around twenty percent or so of patients do very well with these clinical trials so it's not everyone but it is a substantial fraction of people that we couldn't do this far before i mean checkpoint therapy became available that gives us hope that we can build on this twenty percent to make it fifty percent eighty percent maybe one hundred percent i'm not going to sign miracle although it feels like a miracle feels like a huge blessing. and i think and i think it. checkpoint

inhibitor i mean it's just one of the new therapies it seems to work best with cancer is that people get too much sun smoking. but technically come to paris because of beneath our feet high and it. is called a c.t. or adoptive cells charms for their. scientists take t. cells and genetically edit them this immunotherapy is now undergoing its first human test the results are impressive. which year old but she's fighting for her life. just. she was diagnosed with leukemia as the only decision there was no doctors tried everything including a bone marrow transplant so we didn't agree with dominic right to do nothing when i was a what we don't want no whatever we want tonight that we've tried everything for her

life but you've gone just got home and neither there's something available and just think what if we had tried we've done it now and i mean. they list doctors made a desperate plea to a biotech company in paris it was a long shot but dr andre shooting was ready god a call from the physician that we're creating and they said we have no solution and maybe this off the shelf prologue could be a solution why because this patient had not enough cells the next step in the fight against cancer is happening in the bar at this one scientists here in paris a genetically manipulating t. cells essentially engineering them to become cancer fighting. later received a single dose of genetically engineered t. cells so we shipped a vial there and that was the first time this new party nineteen which is the

fourth product for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia was those in the ghosts of the song patients in just a few weeks she went into complete remission just energetic keeps us up late and i think that's already in the morning. yes she's not even started just magic the genetically engineered days is in this vial it's a type of t. cell therapy called catheter america antigen receptor therapy cause of proteins that give t. cells the ability to target human cells in. this technique was invited inside this laboratory operated by the select his company to get a close up view of how this gene editing works before us. protective gloves and. so within the place where you can find a place it's blocked cells that are being manipulated and genetically to reprogram them from aids and to become real cancer killing machines or happens head yes it

is just the start the entire process would take seventeen days it begins with t. cells the company gets from me. so how is this different we cold it's target a pair targeted because we use molecules with a kind of a warhead the tip these molecules have dialed and program and which are called antibodies it's like a rocket that can recognise very. seeking missile finding the cancer cell that's exactly it so we can actually see the cells being growing hair in the flower yes and i and two motion of the machine design. what happened in the body is totally different when the key cell gets inside the body it will recognise to become through the camera and to generate scepter it will start lifting the cancer cell the cell that would present for example see the

nineteenth and then the t. cell will kill the cell but what it said gets inside your body here is start the war against cancer sorry here is where you have to. cancer fighting self yes we want to preserve the cancer potential as much as possible and keep them. alive sleep here. incur any interaction before do get into war so here where we just. exercise a bit about don't exhaust my cat. jam exactly it's a it's a jam. and it was on to the most critical step in the. process was happening here it's a word a genetic thing will have some load. put the thing ready you saw it floating electricity. it started and then the thing happened it still looks

super simple i'm going to reading it happened it's very it's a microsecond the gene editing process happens on a microscopic level that looks like they're. so cool talons come the d.n.a. sequence to suppress such a surface receptor. can then be targeted for specific cancer so now you have this is the time of the impressions of the two sounds connected to the now the option to get your reaction to the story now and during the next hour or two or three hours all the genetic thing will have the trucks hauling or ninety percent of the cells will get the genetic thing not hundred percent. you can't nineteen is useful later richards he had acute lymphoblastic leukemia a our form of blood cancer. you cut one two three targets eight were acute myeloid leukemia don't marry cancer. so what do we have her saw there

are t. cells. cells are targeting. and they have been just told so they were frozen and we thought them. so we can see the cells. wow there are many cancer soldiers in there it's amazing to think that one of those tiny in the core cells is a cancer fighter when you see them are actually incredible the idea behind this therapy is to make it viable for any patient because the t. cells are not specific to an individual after gene editing that should be no rejection of. an uncertain revolutionary isn't a. trial i think that is the definitely a revolution that is starting it's start of it and cancer but just awful this revolution like the excitement around the results. be very promising

as of october two thousand and sixteen which it's remains in remission the second young patient was given that. she has not been identified she is reportedly in remission. but the little girl and her family who are brave enough to risk it to put this treatment first human tax is the one who talked to she remembers. very happy to take a step to take she came kind of came out painted me. what was that like to be part of that first saw her on t.v. i think the destruct. draw like a pretty strong emotion in a world wide this is like the most beautiful thing i've ever done in my life and if it has to stop here well at least i've done something. to the world that the innovation needs to be tested the scientists here are confident that when it is

i can secure could be a reality the tech never harmed up to the femara in paris the next time. the centenarians of italy one hundred years old and counting when you told me that people like these and you receive these you think that you want to be singapore's over seventy five there's something about this area that is helping. life i mean organic here it's not a trend here is what you have they don't have to miss here and although they are eating and smoking and so on there must be a secret techno this time. from lebanon we can cover live and i'll also cover syria what's going on a little is always related to the political game in the middle used by having our office in kuala lumpur with part of the asian story we're able to bring our viewers and insights into asia which other networks have become the country that tells the

story of africans in a way that we don't need to read what they feel that al-jazeera is telling their former side of the story i'm biased i'm dying neutral and reliable. russian filmmaker andre neck rosol travels across his homeland to discover what life is like under putin the russian economy is in question tank unstable oil prices a fluctuating cards half of the country struggles to make ends meet and so in times doctors were in charge now economists calculate everything we don't want to think what will happen when the bank takes away our black. in search of putin's russia at this time on al-jazeera. we understand the differences and the similarities of cultures across the wound. so no matter where you call home al-jazeera will bring in the news and current of

families that matter to. al-jazeera the philippines is asia's largest catholic nation priests are treated like gods but the church has a dark secret when used investigate sexual misconduct inside the most powerful institution in the philippines at this time on al-jazeera. humanitarian situation and just get this thing off the head of the united nations just may in march immediately end the violence against the region. a long time in jordan this is obviously a lie.