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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday April 24 2019, @10:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the always-improving dept.

An advance in the breakthrough cancer treatment known as CAR T-cell therapy appears to eliminate its severe side effects, making the treatment safer and potentially available in outpatient settings, a new USC study shows.

"This is a major improvement," said Si-Yi Chen of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, and senior author of the study appearing online April 22 in Nature Medicine. "We've made a new CAR molecule that's just as efficient at killing cancer cells, but it works more slowly and with less toxicity."

This improved version of CAR T therapy produced no serious side effects in 25 patients who had lymphoma that recurred after previous treatments. Although the study was designed to look at safety, not effectiveness, six out of 11 participants receiving a commonly used dose went into complete remission.

[...] Approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration less than two years ago, CAR T is a literal lifesaver for some people with leukemia and lymphoma, bringing lasting remissions to those on the brink of death. The downside is that the treatment often causes severe side effects -- some of them life-threatening -- which must be managed by experienced specialists.

[...] "The improved CAR T cells proliferated and differentiated into memory cells in the patients, thus producing a potent and long-lasting anti-tumor effect without causing toxicities," Chen said. "Toxicities are currently the biggest barrier to the use of CAR T-cell therapy. My hope is that this safer version of CAR T cell therapy could someday be administered to patients in outpatient settings."

Journal Reference: Zhitao Ying, et. al. A safe and potent anti-CD19 CAR T cell therapy. Nature Medicine, 2019; DOI: 10.1038/s41591-019-0421-7


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 24 2019, @11:37PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 24 2019, @11:37PM (#834558)

    If your car has t-cells, Milla Jonovich may be involved.