Chimeric Antigen Receptor Cancer Immunotherapies Continue to Look Promising
Cancer treatments based on the use of chimeric antigen receptors are one of the more promising of present forms of immunotherapy. In trials they are producing good results in patients with late stage leukemia and lymphoma, who lack any other options, and are comparatively fragile and beaten down by the combination of disease and prior aggressive treatments. They should do even better once deployed earlier, for patients who have not run this gauntlet. In cancer, as in many things, the earlier the intervention the better the prognosis.
Six months after receiving infusions of their own T cells - genetically engineered ex vivo to carry chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) that bind to proteins on the surface of tumor cells - more than one-third of patients with aggressive lymphomas are seemingly disease free, Kite Pharma announced. The results of this six-month follow up in the Phase 2 trial "showed only a slight degradation in response rates and no new safety concerns compared to results previously seen at three months," according to the statement released by the company. "Kite intends to submit a marketing application for the treatment called KTE-C19 to the US Food and Drug Administration by the end of March."
Last year, both Juno Therapeutics and Kite Pharma announced that a small number of patients had died in their respective CAR T-cell therapy trials. Juno's trial was halted, but Kite's carried on. The Kite study enrolled 77 patients with advanced diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and 24 patients with two other forms of aggressive lymphomas. Combined, 36 percent of those patients - all of which had stopped responding to all previous treatments - showed no detectable cancer at six months following treatment, and 82 percent of patients experienced shrinkage of their cancer by half or more. Most importantly, no additional safety issues beyond the three patient deaths already reported (two of which were believed to be the result of treatment) arose.
With the field facing safety concerns with the new type of treatment, researchers have anxiously awaited the results of ongoing trials by Kite Pharma and Novartis. Novartis is right on Kite's heels in the race to market a CAR-T therapy, with the company expected to file with the FDA for approval of its lead CAR-T therapy, CTL019, for a rare pediatric blood cancer called acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Link: http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/48649/title/Kite-s-CAR-T-Cell-Therapy-Success/