Latest news with #T-cells
Time of India
3 days ago
- Health
- Time of India
Evidence of CAR T-cell therapy against cancers presented at US conference
New Delhi: Studies have provided evidence of the effectiveness of CAR T-cell therapy against gastric and brain tumours. The papers, presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology [ASCO] 2025, held from May 30 to June 3 in Chicago, US, have also been published in journals, including The Lancet and Nature Medicine. Treating cancer using CAR T-cell therapy involves modifying genes in one's T-cells - a type of immune cell - to help fight cancer. In The Lancet paper, that revealed results of phase 2 clinical trials , 156 patients with advanced gastric or gastro-oesophageal junction cancer - and who were resistant to "at least two previous lines of treatment" - were randomly assigned to receive 'satri-cel' or an intervention of physician's choice. Satri-cel, or 'Satricabtagene autoleucel' - a CAR T-cell therapy -- showed "encouraging activity" in phase 1 clinical trials in treating patients with advanced gastric or gastro-oesophageal junction cancer, the team, including researchers from China's Peking University Cancer Hospital and Institute, said. A phase-1 trial primarily looks at establishing a new drug's safety and dose characteristics in about 20-100 healthy volunteers, while a 'phase-2' trial provides evidence of the effectiveness of the experimental drug in about 100-300 volunteers or participants. "In this multicentre, randomised, phase 2 study, satri-cel was associated with a statistically significant increase in progression-free survival and clinically meaningful increase in overall survival compared with TPC (treatment of physician's choice), along with a manageable safety profile in patients," the authors wrote. They added that it is the "first randomised controlled study of a CAR T-cell therapy in solid tumours". In the second study, published in the Nature Medicine journal, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, US, said that CAR T-cell therapy "shows promise for slowing tumour growth in a notoriously aggressive and fast-growing brain cancer ". The phase-1 trial involved 18 patients with glioblastoma who received the treatment. "Tumour regression (becoming smaller) occurred in eight of 13 patients (62 per cent) with measurable disease," the authors wrote. In March, a CAR T-cell therapy, indigenously developed by researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay and Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, showed a 73 per cent response rate in patients of leukaemia and lymphoma, who either relapsed following a period of remission or were resistant to treatment. The results of the phase 1 and 2 clinical trials are published in The Lancet Haematology journal. PTI
The Hindu
3 days ago
- Health
- The Hindu
Evidence of CAR T-cell therapy against cancers presented at US conference
Studies have provided evidence of the effectiveness of CAR T-cell therapy against gastric and brain tumours. The papers, presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2025, held from May 30 to June 3 in Chicago, US, have also been published in journals, including The Lancet and Nature Medicine. Treating cancer using CAR T-cell therapy involves modifying genes in one's T-cells – a type of immune cell – to help fight cancer. In The Lancet paper, that revealed results of phase 2 clinical trials, 156 patients with advanced gastric or gastro-oesophageal junction cancer – and who were resistant to 'at least two previous lines of treatment' – were randomly assigned to receive 'satri-cel' or an intervention of physician's choice. Satri-cel, or 'Satricabtagene autoleucel' – a CAR T-cell therapy -- showed 'encouraging activity' in phase 1 clinical trials in treating patients with advanced gastric or gastro-oesophageal junction cancer, the team, including researchers from China's Peking University Cancer Hospital and Institute, said. A phase-1 trial primarily looks at establishing a new drug's safety and dose characteristics in about 20-100 healthy volunteers, while a 'phase-2' trial provides evidence of the effectiveness of the experimental drug in about 100-300 volunteers or participants. 'In this multicentre, randomised, phase 2 study, satri-cel was associated with a statistically significant increase in progression-free survival and clinically meaningful increase in overall survival compared with TPC (treatment of physician's choice), along with a manageable safety profile in patients,' the authors wrote. They added that it is the 'first randomised controlled study of a CAR T-cell therapy in solid tumours'. In the second study, published in the Nature Medicine journal, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, US, said that CAR T-cell therapy 'shows promise for slowing tumour growth in a notoriously aggressive and fast-growing brain cancer'. The phase-1 trial involved 18 patients with glioblastoma who received the treatment. 'Tumour regression (becoming smaller) occurred in eight of 13 patients (62 per cent) with measurable disease,' the authors wrote. In March, a CAR T-cell therapy, indigenously developed by researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay and Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, showed a 73 per cent response rate in patients of leukaemia and lymphoma, who either relapsed following a period of remission or were resistant to treatment. The results of the phase 1 and 2 clinical trials are published in The Lancet Haematology journal.
Time of India
5 days ago
- Health
- Time of India
MGM successfully treats blood cancer patient with CAR T-Cell therapy
Indore: MGM Medical College on Saturday announced its successful treatment of a blood cancer patient using CAR T-cell therapy, making it the first govt medical institution in the state to do so. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "The groundbreaking treatment was carried out under the supervision of department of clinical haematology, transfusion medicine, and bone marrow transplant," MGMMC dean Dr Arvind Ghanghoria said. He added that the patient, whose treatment began on Jan 26 this year at the Super Speciality Hospital, was successfully discharged on Saturday, four months after the therapy. Explained the CAR T-cell therapy process, Dr Ghanghoria said, "The patient undergoes an apheresis procedure to remove white blood cells. A normal patient's blood contains two types of white blood cells, B and T cells. T cells are separated from the white blood cells and then genetically modified using viral vectors. These genetically modified CAR T-cells are then re-infused into the patient. The Chimeric Antigen Receptor identifies specific proteins on the surface of cancer cells and destroys them. In this way, CAR T-cells eliminate cancer from the patient's body, leading to a cancer-free life," he said. Head of clinical haematology department Dr Akshay Lahoti highlighted that similar CAR T-cell therapy treatments abroad can cost up to Rs 4 crore. He extended gratitude for the extensive support received from various individuals and organisations, including Dr Rahul Bhargava (head haematologist, Fortis Hospital), Dr Sudhir Kataria, Dr Preeti Malpani, Dr Prachi Chaudhary, Dr Ashok Yadav, Dr Sumit Shukla, and others. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Indore: MGM Medical College on Saturday announced its successful treatment of a blood cancer patient using CAR T-cell therapy, making it the first govt medical institution in the state to do so. "The groundbreaking treatment was carried out under the supervision of department of clinical haematology, transfusion medicine, and bone marrow transplant," MGMMC dean Dr Arvind Ghanghoria said. He added that the patient, whose treatment began on Jan 26 this year at the Super Speciality Hospital, was successfully discharged on Saturday, four months after the therapy. Explained the CAR T-cell therapy process, Dr Ghanghoria said, "The patient undergoes an apheresis procedure to remove white blood cells. A normal patient's blood contains two types of white blood cells, B and T cells. T cells are separated from the white blood cells and then genetically modified using viral vectors. These genetically modified CAR T-cells are then re-infused into the patient. The Chimeric Antigen Receptor identifies specific proteins on the surface of cancer cells and destroys them. In this way, CAR T-cells eliminate cancer from the patient's body, leading to a cancer-free life," he said. Head of clinical haematology department Dr Akshay Lahoti highlighted that similar CAR T-cell therapy treatments abroad can cost up to Rs 4 crore. He extended gratitude for the extensive support received from various individuals and organisations, including Dr Rahul Bhargava (head haematologist, Fortis Hospital), Dr Sudhir Kataria, Dr Preeti Malpani, Dr Prachi Chaudhary, Dr Ashok Yadav, Dr Sumit Shukla, and others.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Patient with rare cancer finds hope in a Memorial Healthcare clinical trial
A runner, Judith Hetlage repeatedly felt pain in her left lower leg while on her daily path around Davie. Several trips to the orthopedist, however, left her frustrated and without an explanation. Eventually, though, Hetlage's primary doctor ordered a scan of her calf that showed a tumor, and a biopsy led to the diagnosis of a rare cancer of the soft tissue called synovial sarcoma. Her initial treatment at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston — involving chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery — seemed successful, and Hetlage followed up regularly with quarterly scans. Ten years later, though, what began w as synovial sarcoma in her calf ultimately resulted in cancer cells spreading to her lungs. 'I felt like that was the death sentence,' Hetlage said. 'There were 13 tumors in my lungs in a matter of three months.' Hetlage, 65, has some hope in what could be a medical breakthrough. She is enrolled in a pioneering clinical trial that has implications far beyond her rare form of cancer. Through Memorial Cancer Institute and its partnership with Moffett Cancer Center, she is participating in a trial for T-cell Receptor Therapy (TCR-T). The treatment is an immunotherapy that harvests a patient's T-cells, a type of white blood cell that helps the body's immune system fight disease. After removal, the T-cells are genetically modified to recognize a specific protein within cancer cells and infused back into the patient's immune system to search and destroy the diseased cells. It is the first engineered cell therapy for solid tumor cancer approved in the United States. If effective in trial participants, it could extend the reach of TCR-T cells for use beyond just blood cancers to solid tumor cancer in the head and neck, lungs, and skin. Cancer patients whose disease has been resistant to traditional chemotherapy drugs or metastasized within their bodies could benefit. For Hetlage's type of rare cancer, the standard treatment after the disease spreads is chemotherapy. She had begun chemotherapy while waiting to be accepted into the trial. According to the National Cancer Institute, it has been more than a decade since the FDA approved a new therapy for synovial sarcoma. 'There is an exceedingly high need for new treatment options for patients,' said Dr. Sandra D'Angelo of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, who led a small, initial trial of TCR-T for 44 people with synovial sarcoma. The therapy shrank tumors in 19 participants and kept tumors from growing for an average of six months. For two participants, tumors went away and did not return during the three-year study period, according to D'Angelo's report for the National Cancer Institute. Initially, Hetlage's type of cancer hadn't been included in the current national trial of TCR-T for solid tumors. However, the FDA cleared Hetlage to participate. She began treatment three months ago. 'We took her cells and we activated them in a way that now they will recognize her cancer,' said Dr. Atif Hussein, Hetlage's oncologist and director of Memorial's Hematology & Oncology Fellowship training program. Hussein said he infused Hetlage with 'super immune cells' and then gave her a second dose about two weeks later to empower her immune system, which had been depleted and emptied of bone marrow prior to the treatment. The process, called lymph depletion therapy, allows the supercells to find a home in the immune system. While a similar approach has been successfully used to treat blood cancers, it had never before been used on solid tumors. Now, at least 30 clinical trials of engineered TCR-T cells are underway for a variety of solid tumor types including melanoma, lung and colon cancer. Patients have to qualify for Memorial's TCR-T trial by having a specific immune type. Hussein said dozens of his patients with other types of cancer did not have the right immune type to qualify, but Hetlage did. 'Hopefully, we'll have more who will qualify for this study,' he said. So far, it's too soon to know whether the treatment will work for Hetlage. At a cancer survivor's event at Memorial Cancer Institute, Hetlage, a mother of three daughters and former occupational therapist, stood behind the podium, telling other cancer patients: 'I'm not a survivor yet; it's not the end. I believe that survivorship is the day you're diagnosed. I believe that it's all the ups and downs. I stand in the storm. It's about being here and continuing to fight. You can't give in.' Hussein is optimistic about Hetlage's outcome: 'I have been doing oncology for 26 years and I have rarely seen somebody who is so positive, so strong. She is empowering herself, fighting so hard, and if anybody is going to respond, it is somebody like Judith.' Hetlage says she meditates, eats a healthy diet and walks six to seven miles a day. 'I believe your head has got to be in the game,' she said. 'You've got to do the best you can do for yourself while they're doing the medical end.' 'Everyone else I had ever known that had this (type of cancer) isn't still on this earth,' she said. 'This is something I'm going to have to watch and fight the rest of my life.' Hussein said if T-cell receptor therapy can treat solid tumors, it will represent hope in the fight against cancer. He predicts that new cell therapies will be tested in patients in the coming years and represent the next wave of cancer treatment. South Florida Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@ or 954-304-5908.
Miami Herald
13-05-2025
- Health
- Miami Herald
Secret to treating HIV came thousands of years before virus ever appeared. How?
On June 5, 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported five cases of an unknown infection leading to a rare kind of pneumonia. All five men were previously young and healthy, and additional infections indicated their immune systems weren't working. Two of them had already died. It would be another two years before French researchers would identify a retrovirus as the cause of AIDS, or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, according to the CDC. It would be another three years before that virus would get its name HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, the agency said. In the first 10 years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, 8-10 million adults were infected worldwide, according to a 1991 report from the CDC. It became the second leading cause of death among men ages 25 to 44, and nearly 200,000 cases were reported in the United States, primarily among members of the gay community. Years after the virus was first identified, in 1996, researchers discovered there was a group of people with a genetic mutation that made them resistant or even immune from HIV, and this mutation was present in between 18% and 25% of the population of Denmark, according to a May 9 news release from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research. But where in human history did the mutation originate? And how did a thousands-of-years-old mutation survive to fight a modern-day disease? Researchers asked and answered these questions in a new study published May 5 in the peer-reviewed journal Cell. What does the mutation do? Human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, is a virus that destroys human T-cells, the parts of the body that fight infection in your immune system, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The virus then leaves your body exposed to even minor illnesses, leading to causes of death from things like pneumonia or bronchitis. You can carry HIV without experiencing symptoms, or if your condition worsens, you can develop acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Those with the genetic mutation have what is called a '32-bp deletion,' which means the gene known as chemokine receptor 5, or CCR5, isn't fully expressed, according to the study. This gene partially regulates the inflammatory response of the immune system, researchers said, so those with the mutation did not react to HIV the same way, preserving their T-cells and fighting infection as normal. The mutation has been used as the key to multiple HIV treatments, including transplanting donor cells, according to the study. This includes a recent case where donor cells transplanted into a female patient led to her being potentially 'cured' of the disease. Previous research tracking the CCR5 mutation narrowed its origin down to European groups between 5250 and 1690 B.C., and there were spikes when more people had the mutation during the Black Death pandemic and during the late medieval period, according to the study. But this wasn't back far enough. Finding the source Researchers analyzed the genetic code of 934 ancient human remains and compared it to 2,504 present-day genomes, according to the study. This allowed the team to narrow the field to a more specific time and region of the world. From this genetic data, the researchers developed an AI method that could identify the mutation in ancient bones, according to the release. 'By looking at this large dataset, we can determine where and when the mutation arose. For a period, the mutation is completely absent, but then it suddenly appears and spreads incredibly quickly,' study author Kirstine Ravn said in the release. 'When we combine this with our knowledge of human migration at the time, we can also pinpoint the region where the mutation originated.' All lines came back to one point — a single person living close to the Black Sea as many as 9,000 years ago, which includes the early Stone Age and the Viking Age, researchers said. All modern-day carriers of the mutation are descendants of this individual. 'It turns out that the variant arose in one individual who lived in an area near the Black Sea between 6,700 and 9,000 years ago,' study author Simon Rasmussen said in the release. 'HIV is a relatively new disease — less than 100 years old — so it's almost coincidental and very fascinating that a genetic variation that arose thousands of years ago also protects against a modern virus like HIV.' An ancient coincidence It is merely a coincidence that the ancient mutation has the HIV-preventing effect now, researchers said, but the general impact on the immune system caused by the mutation may be why it survived in generation after generation. 'People with this mutation were better at surviving, likely because it dampened the immune system during a time when humans were exposed to new pathogens,' study author Leonardo Cobuccio said in the release. Researchers said as people transition from widespread hunter and gatherer communities to close-knit agricultural communities, they are exposed to new infectious diseases. The mutation disrupts the immune response, which they say sounds bad, but would actually prevent diseases that cause extreme damage to the immune system from being so effective, according to the release. 'An overly aggressive immune system can be deadly — think of allergic reactions or severe cases of viral infections like COVID-19, where the immune system often causes the damage that kills patients,' researchers explained. Those with the mutation would have had a 'more balanced immune system,' which would have been 'advantageous' and thus allowed the mutation to persist to modern day, according to the release. The research was conducted through the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. The research team includes Ravn, Cobuccio, Rasmussen, Rasa Audange Muktupavela, Jonas Meisner, Lasse Schnell Danielsen, Michael Eriksen Benros, Thorfinn Sand Korneliussen, Martin Sikora, Eske Willerslev, Morten E. Allentoft and Evan K. Irving-Pease.
