Gene Therapy and Cancer

Source- The telegraph UK

Recently, the Telegraph UK published a story that has given a number of cancer patients hope about a cure. Recently a trail conducted by USA's Kita Pharma Research for a new treatment called CAR-T cell therapy has been successful in curing 36 out of 101 patients who have terminal cancer.

How does the treatment work?

The treatment has been referred to as the living drug treatment. It works by filtering a patient's blood to remove key immune system cells called T-cells, which are then genetically engineered in the lab to recognize cancer cells. Cancer cells are very good a evading the immune system, but the new therapy essentially cuts the brakes, allowing immune cells to do their job properly.

(Source - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/02/28/terminal-cancer-patients-complete-remission-one-gene-therapy/)

A whole lot of end stage patients, who has already tried and failed to get better with traditional therapies, have seen their tumors shrink like 'ice cubes' and are in remission after just a single session.

The doctors however need to check the long term benefits and side effects of this new therapy. There were two people who died during the trail due to the therapy instead of cancer.

Its sponsor, California-based Kite Pharma, is racing Novartis AG to become the first to win approval of the treatment, called CAR-T cell therapy, in the U.S. It could become the nation’s first approved gene therapy. (Source - http://news.nationalpost.com/health/cancer-patients-in-extraordinary-gene-therapy-study-in-complete-remission-after-one-treatment?__lsa=4285-e285).There were no cases of swelling and fluid in the brain in this or any other study testing Kite’s treatment, company officials said. That contrasts with Juno Therapeutics, which has had a CAR-T study put on hold twice after five patient deaths due to this problem.

Results were released by the company and have not been published or reviewed by other experts. Full results will be presented at the American Association for Cancer Research conference in April.The company plans to seek approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by the end of March and in Europe later this year.

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