A Phase I trial led by the Baylor College of Medicine shows an autologous chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for treatment of advanced HER2-specific sarcoma was beneficial in 50% of patients in the trial. Lower-level cytokine release syndrome was fairly common in the study, but only two individuals had…

A team of French researchers has found that the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and lumbar puncture (LP) may not always be necessary as a diagnostic tool to help doctors manage serious neurotoxicity related to CAR T-cell therapy. The study, published today in the journal Blood Advances, further validated…

Researchers at City of Hope report the first-ever chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell treatment of recurrent brain tumors delivered directly to the tumor, bypassing the protective blood-brain barrier. The study marks the completion of the largest Phase I clinical trial to date for any solid tumor type. “We’re going after…

A chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy with a new cellular binding mechanism targeting CD19 has achieved good results in a Phase I trial in patients with relapsed or refractory B cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. As reported in the journal Molecular Cancer, the new therapy had an overall response rate of…

Results presented at this year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting confirm positive Phase II results for British biotech Autolus Therapeutics’ autologous CD19 CAR T-cell therapy for treating B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), which is designed to have better T cell persistence and less T cell exhaustion than other…

An “off-the-shelf” allogeneic CAR T-cell therapy, developed by Allogene Therapeutics and tested by the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, showed promising results in a Phase I trial to treat patients with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma. The advent of immunotherapy revolutionized cancer treatment. Combined gene and cell…

Underprivileged children who receive CAR T-cell therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) have similar outcomes as those from more advantaged households, according to a new study published in Blood. This is particularly surprising since, overall, children with ALL living in poverty are significantly more likely to relapse and die from…

At Penn Medicine, a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has been developed that can kill tumor cells in mouse models of neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) and gastrointestinal cancers (GICs) with no obvious toxicity or off target effects. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapies have shown that they can take on blood…

A novel immunotherapy strategy that generates transient engineered chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells in the body can reduce scarring and restore cardiac function in a mouse model of heart failure, according to research led by the University of Pennsylvania. The experimental immunotherapy approach is based on the delivery of modified…

Data from three separate clinical studies, released at the American Society Hematology (ASH) conference in December by researchers from the MD Anderson Cancer Center, showed enhanced response in patients with high-risk lymphoma when treated with axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel) chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. Axi-cel is an autologous anti-CD19 CAR…

The FDA has approved Bristol Myers Squibb’s and bluebird bio’s CAR-T cell therapy for treating the blood cancer multiple myeloma, the first cell-based gene therapy approved for this indication and is the first B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-directed therapy. Abecma (idecabtagene vicleucel) was approved for patients with multiple myeloma whose cancer…

Bristol Myers Squibb and bluebird bio’s autologous CAR T-cell therapy for multiple myeloma, idecabtagene vicleucel, succeeded in inducing at least a partial response in 73% of treated patients in a recent Phase II trial, with 33% having a complete response or achieving remission. Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the…

Hematologist oncologist Miloš Miljković, MD, joined Cartesian Therapeutics as chief medical officer (CMO) in September 2021 from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to do what he does best—develop and execute clinical programs—to help the RNA cell therapy company re-establish its stride in autoimmunity following the COVID-19 pandemic. “CAR-Ts have become…

A research study led by the University of Kansas suggests that the FDA-mandated monitoring period of diffuse large B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma patients receiving chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy could be halved without harm to patients. Writing in the journal Blood Advances, first author Nausheen Ahmed, a researcher and hematologist…

Cancer immunotherapy has made significant strides over the past few decades, primarily due to the advent of engineered T cells. Two types of engineered T cells have been at the forefront of these advancements: those utilizing chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) and those equipped with T cell receptors (TCRs). Both approaches…