MesotheliomaHelp.net
A year after the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Cancer Center and Perelman School of Medicine researchers announced a breakthrough treatment using gene transfer therapy, the school announces it has joined forces with Novartis to bring the treatment to other cancer patients. The partnership will focus on a personalized immunotherapy approach to treating mesothelioma and other cancers.
The gene transfer therapy process, that proved successful in leukemia patients, involved removing patients' cells and genetically modifying them so they would attack tumor cells, then infusing the new cells back into the patient's body following chemotherapy. The T cells were encoded with an antibody-like protein, called a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR), according to the Penn Medicine, which is expressed on the surface of the T cells and designed to bind to a protein called CD19. The revised T cells then sought out and killed the tumors in the patients.
Together, according to Friday's press release, "Penn and Novartis will build a first-of-its-kind Center for Advanced Cellular Therapies (CACT) on the Penn campus in Philadelphia — a venture which will bring full circle the 1960 discovery of the Philadelphia chromosome, the first description of a chromosome abnormality that causes cancer." The pair reports the new center will be focused on T cell immunotherapy research.
In the agreement, Penn grants Novartis an exclusive worldwide license to the technologies used in an ongoing trial of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) as well as future CAR-based therapies developed through the collaboration.
"With our shared commitment to rapidly advancing new therapies and cures, this new alliance will provide the support for the essential clinical trials with engineered T cells, which could open doors for use of promising treatment options for many cancer patients who have reached the end of currently available treatments," said J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD , dean of the Perelman School of the Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and executive vice president for the Health System.
Mesothelioma, an aggressive, asbestos-caused cancer, is much like leukemia in that patients have limited treatments options that typically involve therapy that can leave them with a poor quality of life and, still, a poor prognosis. However, with the success of the T cell therapy in leukemia patients, researchers hope to treat mesothelioma and other cancers in this safer, and more effective, manner.
The Penn Medicine research team announced previously that it has engineered a CAR vector that binds to mesothelin, a protein expressed on the surface of mesothelioma cancer cells, as well as on ovarian and pancreatic cancer cells. Penn clinical trials are currently underway to test the CAR vector in mesothelioma and other cancers.
Dr. Daniel Sterman, co-director of the Penn Mesothelioma and Pleural Program announced initial results of the mesothelioma clinical trial earlier this year. He indicated an 80 percent response rate to the combination gene therapy- chemotherapy treatment in mesothelioma victims. Final results have not yet been released.
Penn Medicine is the home of Penn's Mesothelioma and Pleural Program which, according to Penn Medicine's website, "brings together internationally renowned experts in medical, surgical and radiation oncology and pulmonology who collaborate in the diagnosis, treatment and research of mesothelioma and pleural disease."
Mesothelioma is diagnosed in approximately 3,000 people in the United States each year. The disease is incurable, though there are treatments including chemotherapy, radiation and surgery that can improve the patients' survival.
