When traditional approaches are no longer effective, novel approaches that harness the power of the body’s innate immune cells to overcome cancer could help certain patients with B-cell lymphoma, B-cell leukemia, myeloma and even solid tumors. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy was the first cancer treatment made of immune cells and is the harbinger of significant advances on the horizon.
CAR T-cell therapy has been shown to provide patients with B-cell malignancies or myeloma with a sustained rate of remission after a single treatment. When it is successful, these patients do not need follow-up therapies such as maintenance chemotherapy to stay in remission.
World-renowned pioneers with a history of innovation in the field of immunotherapy, Medical College of Wisconsin physicians and researchers developed a type of CAR T-cell therapy that is dual-targeted against CD19 and CD20 cancer antigens. This first-in-human clinical research has paved the way for further study on a national scale.
Our researchers and physicians have access to the MCW cell-processing lab on the Froedtert & MCW campus — the only such onsite lab in Wisconsin. With this resource at their disposal, they are studying ways to make CAR T-cell therapy more potent and safer with fewer side effects. Their research is also designed to gain a better understanding of the specific characteristics of the patient population for which CAR T-cell therapy is most effective.
The ultimate goal is to be able to offer CAR T-cell therapy as a frontline treatment — and to extend it to patients with diseases beyond lymphoma, leukemia and myeloma. With many clinical studies underway, CAR T-cell therapy is likely next in line to gain Food and Drug Administration approval for myeloma treatment. Clinical research is also ongoing to discover new targets for CAR T-cell therapy so patients with other malignancies — including solid tumors — will, one day, benefit.
CAR T-cell therapy is just one among a host of immune effector treatments available for your patients through clinical trials at Froedtert & MCW Froedtert Hospital. Other examples include:
- Natural killer cells: Donor lymphocytes that recognize abnormal cells and eliminate them — typically infused into patients after an infusion of their own stem cells.
- Autologous tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL): Cultured in a lab with lymphokines and infused into the patient to eradicate certain tumor cell targets.
- T-cell receptor therapy (TCR): T cells that are engineered in a lab to recognize tumor-specific proteins on the inside of a cancer cell.
Open Immunotherapy Clinical Trials
View a complete listing of open cancer clinical trials at froedtert.com/research/clinical-trials. If you have questions, please call our Clinical Trials Office at 414-805-8900.
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