Breakthrough in treating one of the deadliest cancers

Health
By Liam

Breakthrough in the treatment of one of the deadliest blood cancers: ‘Remarkably effective’ new immunotherapy could slow disease progression by 74%

By Kate Pickles Chicago Health Editor

Updated:

A new type of immunotherapy can slow the progression of one of the deadliest cancers by three-quarters, a study finds.

Experts found CAR-T therapy “remarkably effective” for treating patients with multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer that arises from cells in the bone marrow.

Trials showed that the drug, which goes by the brand name Carvykti, slowed disease progression by 74 percent in patients who had become resistant to other drugs.

The treatment uses the body’s own immune system to kill myeloma cells, effectively reprogramming them to become better at fighting the disease.

Blood is drawn from patients and genetically modified in a lab before being put back, allowing the CAR-T cells to target and kill the myeloma cells.

CAR T cell therapy (or chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy) is a form of immunotherapy, which uses the power of a patient’s immune system to fight the disease

The study involved 419 people with multiple myeloma who had stopped responding to lenalidomide, the drug currently given to patients.

During an average follow-up of 16 months, 84.6 percent of patients taking Carvytki responded to treatment, compared with 67.3 percent with standard treatment.

Nearly two-thirds (61 percent) assigned to CAR T-cell therapy had fewer traces of the cancer than the other group (16 percent).

According to figures from Cancer Research UK, around 6,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with myeloma each year.

Experts said that while the CAR-T cell treatments are not curative, they have the potential to provide longer remission times and that the one-time nature of the treatment gives patients “free time” to take medication.

Dr. Binod Dhakal, of the Medical College of Wisconsin, who led the study, said it “significantly improved the speed and depth of response.”

He presented his findings to the American Society of Clinical Oncology, saying the treatment supports it as “a potential new standard of care” for patients with limited options.

Made by Janssen, the drug is not yet available for use in the UK.

What is CAR-T Therapy?

CAR T cell therapy (or chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy) is a form of immunotherapy, which uses the power of a patient’s immune system to fight the disease.

There are different types that work in different ways to help the immune system recognize and attack cancer cells.

CAR T cell therapy develops immune cells called T cells to find and destroy cancer cells.

The process of creating these weaponized T cells is lengthy, complex and expensive.

It starts by hooking the patient up to a machine (similar to a dialysis machine used for kidney patients) that takes a sample of their blood and separates their T cells, before returning the rest of the blood to their body.

The machine repeats the process until it has collected 200 ml of T cells, which can take six hours.

In a lab, these T cells are then manipulated to find and destroy the patient’s cancer. This is done by using an inactivated virus to insert genetic material that instructs the cells to make a protein called a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) that recognizes a specific protein on the patient’s cancer cells.

Certain cancers overproduce certain proteins and the treatments focus on these.

The supercharged T-cells are then multiplied in the lab, before an infusion of 200 million cells is infused into the patient in just two minutes.

The cells should then target and kill cancer cells that contain the protein they are designed to recognize. In some cases, the cancer is undetectable within a month, although this may take longer.

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