Innovative treatment effective in patients with certain tumours, study suggests
An innovative treatment that reprogrammes immune cells to recognise and kill cancer has been shown to be effective on patients with certain tumours in a pioneering trial.
CAR T-cell therapy is usually used to treat some types of blood cancer.
It involves genetically modifying a patient's T cells – a type of white blood cell – in a lab, before returning them to the bloodstream.
A new first of its kind trial explored the use of the treatment in patients with advanced stomach cancer and gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer, which develops at the point where the oesophagus meets the stomach.
The phase two study, led by researchers in China, included people diagnosed with advanced stomach or GEJ cancer which had not responded to two previous lines of treatment.
Some 104 patients were earmarked for CAR T-cell therapy while 52 were given standard care, which included a selection of drugs chosen by their doctor.
Those who had CAR T-cell therapy lived an average for 7.9 months, compared to 5.5 months with standard care.
Patients who received the treatment also spent 3.3 months without their cancer progressing compared to 1.8 months in the standard group.
Researchers said that the study is the 'first randomised controlled trial of CAR T-cell therapy in solid tumours globally' and shows the treatment 'resulted in a significant improvement in progression-free survival, with a manageable safety profile'.
They added that the findings, published in the Lancet and presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago, support CAR T-cell therapy 'as a new third-line treatment' for patients with advanced stomach and GEJ cancer.
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