Cancer is a word you never want to hear.
Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute’s mission is to free the world of cancer, and a recent breakthrough in oncology gives some patients who hear this word new hope.
The oncology breakthrough is a type of cell therapy called CAR-T, and the two physicians leading this work are here in Michigan, at Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit.
CAR-T chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy — is new a type of immunotherapy — born out of years of cellular therapy research.
The Michigan doctors working in this new field are Joseph Uberti, Karmanos’ division chief of hematology and co-director of bone marrow transplant, who’s also a professor in Wayne State University’s School of Medicine; and Karmanos medical oncologist Abhinav Deol, who is an associate professor at Wayne State School of Medicine.
“What is revolutionary is CAR-T therapy itself,” Uberti says. “We are using the patient’s own cells, arming them with the molecule that seeks out and destroys tumor cells. These cells can multiply and kill off even more tumor cells. This is a real game changer in the treatment of cancers.”
CAR-T therapy genetically modifies the patient’s own white blood cells, which helps them recognize and attack the cancer cells.
Once Karmanos specialists determine a patient is eligible for treatment, Karmanos’ transplant team removes T-cells from the patient’s body using an apheresis process. The T-cells are shipped to an outside quality-controlled manufacturing facility, where they are modified with the chimeric antigen receptor, a process that takes two to three weeks.
During this time, the patient will undergo a short chemotherapy regimen to prepare his or her body for the CAR-T cells. The CAR-T cells are infused back into the patient, where they multiply to become a cellular to destroy cancer cells.
“These armed cells are a living treatment that will remain in the body to prevent the cancer from returning,” Deol says.
Currently, CAR-T is a one-time treatment to put a patient’s disease in remission.
There are specific criteria for eligible patients. Only patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, who have failed to respond to standard treatments or have relapsed following treatment and are 25 or younger may undergo this treatment, says Uberti.
Deol adds, “Following CAR-T therapy, we’re seeing initial positive response rates in the range of 80 percent; and long-term response rates, approximately one year or longer, up to 45 percent. As more data becomes available, we hope to see an even longer time in remission.”
For more information of CAR-T therapy or other cancer services, call 800-KARMANOS (527-6266) or visit karmanos.org.