The cancer patients treated with pioneering immunotherapy which genetically modifies their own cells to destroy tumors living 40% more, according to “exciting” and “revolutionary” results of a first clinical trial.
T cell therapy is a new form of immunotherapy where a patient’s own T lymphocytes – a type of white blood cells – are modified in a laboratory to target and kill cancer cells. The designer’s cells are then infused in their blood circulation to fight against the disease.
Therapy has already turned out to be able to treat blood cancers. From now on, the results of the first randomized controlled trial in the world of T cell therapy because in solid tumors suggest that this could also be a transformer in the fight against these cancers.
Solid tumors represent approximately 90% of all cancers, including breast, lungs and pancreas cancer.
In the test, praised as an “important step” by experts, patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal cancer (GEJ) treated with T cell therapy because they lived on average about 40% longer than patients who received standard care.
The results were published in Lancet and presented at the largest global cancer conference, the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), in Chicago.
Dr. Carl June, a leading expert in T cell therapy of the car at the University of Pennsylvania, who was not involved in the trial, said: “This is an exciting study showing the first positive results of a randomized trial testing T cells because for solid cancer.
“The study shows that T because satri-Cel cells offer significant advantages to advanced gastric cancer patients who have failed at least two previous therapy lines. This represents a revolutionary stage for the field of CAR-T therapies against solid tumors.”
In the trial, more than 100 patients in China with advanced gastric cancer or gej have been randomized to receive either TRAIN TREATMENT TO TO TO C because or one of the drug standard drugs. Patients who received T cell therapy because it lived on average 7.9 months after randomization, compared to 5.5 months thanks to standard care.
Patients receiving immunotherapy from designers also experienced 3.3 months without cancer progressing, compared to 1.8 months in the standard care group.
Researchers, the Peking University Cancer Hospital & Beijing Institute, said that T cell therapy has shown a statistically significant improvement in progression -free survival and clinically significant improvement in global survival “. The results suggest that the T lymphocytes of the car “could represent a paradigm shift in care, meeting an unsecured crucial need for certain patients, they added.
Dr. Jason Luke, ASCO expert and an associate professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, said the results were “exciting”. He added: “This is a very important publication” plant the flag “which should rally the community of cancer research to advance towards the improvement of the life of patients [with] Solid tumors. »»
A second study on T CO lymphocytes on Sunday by the University of Pennsylvania and which should be presented in Asco, suggests that the approach can also be used to treat brain tumors.
The results of this trial should show that T lymphocytes because can reduce tumors in glioblastoma, aggressive and fast -growing brain cancer and help patients live much longer.
Carotherapy of chimerical antigen receptors – T cells genetically operate a patient T cells to recognize and destroy cancer cells.
T cells are a type of white blood cells that can recognize and destroy foreign cells, including cancer cells, but because cancer is able to escape immune detection, they often miss their mark. T because T -ray cells are designed to improve them to detect cancer cells.
Chicago oncologists said they were increasingly optimistic that T cell therapy could revolutionize the treatment of solid tumors, after spectacular success with blood cancers.
“For solid cancers, there is clearly not only interest, but the proof that this treatment can benefit patients, which makes it a new important development which should be shared,” said Dr. John Haanen, of the Netherlands Institute of Cancer, which will make a presentation on T cell therapy because in Reunion ASCO. “I think that [is] A new generation of treatments that was not there for medical oncologists before. »»
Dr Catherine Elliott, director of research and partnerships at Cancer Research UK, said that she was “encouraging” to see the early signs that T cell therapy could help patients with solid tumors. Therapy should be tested in a larger number of patients before being widely deployed, said Elliott, but “could mark an important step for patients with limited treatment options”.
