Cellular therapy is a type of treatment that uses cells from a variety of sources, mainly bone marrow, to fight diseases. Bone marrow transplants are primarily used to treat people who have specific blood cancers and people with certain genetic or immune deficiency diseases. Cellular therapy now has its first FDA-approved treatment for a solid tumor indication: advanced melanoma. The Froedtert & MCW Clinical Cancer Center is the only treatment center in Wisconsin authorized to provide this innovative therapy. Researchers are exploring additional options for solid tumor treatment. 

Q: What is the Cellular Therapy Lab? 

Dr. Hematti: The Cellular Therapy Lab is located on the Froedtert Hospital campus. This specialized lab processes, manufactures and stores cells for cellular therapy, a treatment that improves the immune system's ability to identify and target disease. It also provides resources for MCW researchers to implement new cellular therapy clinical trials. 

Q: What is the benefit for patients receiving cellular therapy? 

Dr. Hematti: The lab has a crucial role in clinical care for patients who need bone marrow transplants and other forms of cellular therapy, such as chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, or CAR T-cell therapy. CAR T-cell therapy is FDA-approved for some patients with certain types of blood cancers, such as lymphoma and myeloma. T cells are collected from the patient’s blood, genetically engineered to express a new protein and multiplied. Patients receive their personalized CAR T-cell therapy via IV infusion. Then, these strengthened cells eliminate cancer cells. In addition to standard of care treatments, our patients can access clinical trials. For example, we are testing CAR T-cell therapy for patients with solid tumors like breast, lung, ovarian and uterine cancers, and certain types of lymphoma and myeloma. 

Q: How is the Cellular Therapy Lab different? 

Dr. Hematti: There are only about 100 cellular therapy programs in the country housed at academic medical centers. What sets us apart is our ability to produce certain types of CAR T-cell products in our on-site Cellular Therapy Lab for patients enrolled in our lymphoma clinical trials. Most cellular therapy programs can only offer their patients commercial products manufactured at an external lab and shipped to their hospital. While we offer commercial products, we also produce certain types of cellular therapies on-site. Based on the revolutionary work of Nirav Shah, MD, medical oncologist and MCW faculty member, we can give many patients with lymphoma access to potentially lifesaving treatments in eight to 12 days instead of three to four weeks needed for off-site cell production. 

Q: How is the Froedtert & MCW health network helping move the needle on cellular therapy, and what are the future capabilities? 

Dr. Hematti: Until recently, most cellular therapies were for blood cancers, but this year, the FDA approved a form of cellular therapy called tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes to treat melanoma, a solid tumor cancer. There are also clinical research studies for treating other solid tumors with cellular therapy. This offers hope to many people with cancer who have exhausted other treatment options. Cellular therapy is also being investigated in new ways outside of cancer. For example, we are working with MCW neurosurgeons and a biotech company to investigate a new form of cellular therapy to treat patients with epilepsy that no longer responds to anti-epileptic medications.

Clinical Trials Expand Treatment Options