New hope for patients fighting aggressive blood cancers
Sponsored by and provided by Allogene Therapeutics
For most of the past 100 years, doctors typically had three ways to treat cancer: remove it surgically, destroy it with radiation, or reduce it with chemotherapy. For many patients, these approaches can be relatively effective. But these methods often fail in patients with more aggressive, deadly forms of cancer. Over the last decade, determined researchers have made significant progress in the effort to improve treatment options for these patients.
One such advancement is an immunotherapy known as autologous chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy or autologous CAR T. First approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2017 for certain blood cancers, CAR T therapy has fundamentally changed how hematologic cancers are treated. Today, there are six approved autologous CAR T therapies available for a growing number of blood cancers, including leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. But as excitement around CAR T grows, so does a problem that impacts healthcare providers and thousands of patients: limited access to this treatment.
The problem isn't the therapy. It's the bespoke process required to deliver the therapy to the patient. Autologous CAR T therapy requires a time-consuming, individualized manufacturing process. That means patients find themselves on waiting lists as their health deteriorates, and doctors have to make difficult decisions about who gets treatment and who must wait.
New Clinical Trial Available for Floridians
Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa are on the forefront of finding a solution to this complex problem: next-generation allogeneic, or what some call "off-the-shelf" CAR T products. Unlike autologous therapy, these "off-the-shelf" investigational CAR T products can be produced in large batches and are readily available so patients can potentially be treated in days rather than weeks or months.
According to Dr. Frederick Locke, Chair of the Department of Blood and Marrow Transplant and Cellular Immunotherapy and Program Co-Leader, Immuno-Oncology at Moffitt Cancer Center, allogeneic CAR T products may help overcome some of the logistical and manufacturing challenges physicians are seeing in daily practice.
"It's one thing to get a product approved, it's another to be able to manufacture it in large batches to ensure that all eligible patients can get it," Dr. Locke said. "The research we're doing now is exploring what's possible with an allogeneic CAR T product as it has the potential to make a huge difference for our patients."
According to the American Cancer Society, more than 4,000 people in Florida will die of blood cancers this year. [1] Researchers at Moffit Cancer Center have been at the forefront of CAR T research for more than a decade and are among the select sites in the U.S. offering a new clinical trial of an "off-the-shelf" CAR T investigational product. The trial builds on earlier studies presented at a major oncology meeting that showed these products could deliver results similar to currently approved autologous CAR T treatments.
This newer research will be especially critical for patients with late-stage cancers that are no longer responding to treatment. At these clinical trial sites, eligible patients, including those who are unable to gain access to autologous CAR T, may be able to get this investigational treatment. Most importantly, success in these clinical trials could support a potential FDA approval and expand access to this treatment option for people with cancer in ways never before possible.
This is why the research going on at Moffitt Cancer Center and other locations in the United States is so critical. Without new treatment advances, the waiting lists for autologous CAR T are likely to get longer.
People with questions about the trial can go to the trial website here for more information, or they can call (813) 745-6100 or 1-800-679-0775.