Approval for ‘future of cancer therapy’ new treatment could make 80% of cases curable with 20 years
Australian scientists get approval for ‘future of cancer therapy’ as they pioneer treatment that could make 80 percent of cases curable within two decades
- A new treatment for multiple myeloma has been approved
- 80 percent of cancers can be cured within 20 to 30 years
- Therapy is a one-off treatment that ensures a functional cure
A new one-off treatment developed by Australian scientists has been approved in the fight against cancer, which some experts say could pave the way for a cure for 80 percent of cases within two to three decades.
The therapy, called CARVYKTI, helps treat patients with multiple myeloma and will be used when other treatments fail.
Each year, about 1,100 Australians lose their lives to multiple myeloma, which develops in the blood via plasma cells in the bone marrow.
The treatment has now been approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, marking the first time in Australia that a CAR-T cell therapy has been approved for use against a common cancer.
CAR-T cell therapy is a personalized immunotherapy that involves drawing blood so that doctors can re-engineer the patient’s own T cells to kill cancer in the body after it has been re-injected.
T cells are part of your immune system and fight infection, and CAR-T cells are designed to find and attack BCMA, a protein found on the surface of nearly all multiple myeloma cells, according to Janssen Biotech and Legend Biotech who developed the new treatment.
A new one-time treatment has been approved in the fight against cancer that some experts say could pave the way for a cure for 80 percent of cancers within two to three decades
CAR-T cell therapy is a personalized immunotherapy that involves drawing blood so that doctors can re-engineer the patient’s own T cells to kill cancer in the body after it has been re-injected.
Blood draws from patients take three to six hours before the sample is sent to a special laboratory where structures called chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) are placed on their surfaces during a five-week process.
Once injected again, the cells multiply rapidly and aggressively attack all cancer cells throughout the body.
The TGA approval is an important step in making CAR-T cell therapy an option for physicians and patients seeking treatment, said the director of the Center for Blood Cell Therapies at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center, Miles Prince.
“This therapy represents a total paradigm shift, it is a one-time living drug that can cure patients with cancer that is otherwise incurable,” said Prince. The Australian.
“This approval is really important news and it is the first big step towards regulation of this product. It sets the tone for us to be able to establish this therapy in Australia, and we can start … preparing to treat myeloma patients.”
CAR-T cell therapy will soon be published in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods and patients who have tried at least three lines of therapy unsuccessfully will be approved for use.
Recent studies on the effectiveness of CAR-T cell therapy have found ‘convincing evidence’ that between 72 and 97 percent of patients respond to treatment, according to a study. Evohealth report.
The report also found that up to 77 percent of those who responded well to treatment experienced no disease progression in the 12 months following the reinjection.
Another study by the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago also found that CARVYKTI was effective in people with myeloma who no longer responded to lenalidomide, a chemotherapy drug.
T cells are part of your immune system and fight infection, and CAR-T cells are designed to find and attack BCMA, a protein found on the surface of nearly all multiple myeloma cells (pictured T cells that have a cancer cell attacks)
CARVYKTI has been shown to be effective in people with myeloma who no longer responded to lenalidomide, a chemotherapy drug (pictured lymphocytes attacking a cancer cell)
Despite the promising findings, patients hoping to receive CAR-T cell therapy will struggle to gain approval, as there is currently no public funding for the treatment.
The Medical Services Advisory Committee has previously refused to approve government funding requests.
However, Janssen confirmed to the Australian that it would submit an urgent request for reimbursement to the MSAC for consideration at its November meeting.
An additional 4.5 million cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed in the next 25 years, and more than 100 clinical trials of CAR-T cell therapies are underway to help increase the current survival rate – which is 55 after five years percent is.