Immunotherapy is a growing field of cancer research and it brings a lot of promise because of the recent advancements in genomics (on one hand).
The staff at NCI published an overview of the results of two early-phase clinical trials involving genetically engineered immune cells (CAR-T cells, chimeric antigen receptor T cells) that targeted BCMA (B-cell maturation antigen), which is a protein on myeloma cells. The FDA approved and is in the process of approving different forms of immunotherapy, which is good if you ask me.
In short, with CAR-T cell therapy, the patient is taken immune cells from the blood, engineered in the lab to produce these CARs, cultured and grown until they reach a certain number (in the order of billions), then reintroduced /reinfused back into the patient.
Results are more than promising:
- in one of the trials 33 out 35 patients went into complete remission within 2 months of treatment; the other 2 patients responded to the treatment
- in the other trial there were 21 patients, but data is available for only 18 of the patients - the other 3 patients were not followed long enough:
"Beyond this first-level dose, however, the overall response rate was 100%, with 27% of patients experiencing an sCR and the remainder having what is known as a very good partial response (based on widely used and accepted criteria)." [source]
- side-effects, including toxicity, seem to have been reduced significantly, and if existent, they are manageable:
"Serious side effects, including immune-related effects seen in other CAR T-cell trials, have been limited in the patients treated to date, reported the investigators leading the trials." [source]
One of the doctors, Jesus Berdeja MD of Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Tennessee, reported updates:
"What’s so striking is that the tumor cells are killed so quickly that all the other parameters [of treatment response] lag behind." [source]
In my view, results and insights from both of these trials are important in deciding strategies for future cancer treatments (emphasis on dose/efficacy). The researchers involved in the trials are continuing to plan and enroll patients, so, more updates are likely to come.
If you are interested, you should read more in the NCI post; as for the studies, the updates are:
Reference: [National Cancer Institute]
Image Credit: [National Cancer Institute]
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Cristi Vlad, Self-Experimenter and Author