Development of Personalized Cellular Therapy for Brain Cancer

According to a recent study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, a team of researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research found that immune cells engineered to seek out and attack a type of deadly brain cancer were found to be both safe and effective at controlling tumor growth in mice that were treated with these modified cells. The new preclinical study details the design and use of T cells engineered to express a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) that targets a mutation in the epidermal growth factor receptor protein called EGFRvIII, which is found on about 30 percent of glioblastoma patients’ tumor cells. Patients whose tumors express the EGFRvIII mutation tend to have more aggressive glioblastomas. Their tumors are less likely to respond favorably to standard therapies and more likely to recur following those treatments. “Patients with this type of brain cancer have a very poor prognosis. Many survive less than 18 months following their diagnosis,” said a lead author of the study. “We’ve brought together experts in an array of fields to develop an innovative personalized immunotherapy for certain brain cancers.” To read more about this study, click here.