Breakthrough cancer treatment nearly wipes out tumors in days

By Isobel Williams via SWNS

A new treatment for a deadly brain cancer nearly wiped it out in just five days in what scientists hailed "dramatic and rapid" results.

Clinical trials of a novel treatment on patients with aggressive cancer glioblastoma have “revolutionized” the way scientists think about treating patients.

Researchers from the Mass General Cancer Center in Massachusetts, have shared the results for the first three patients in a clinical trial of CAR-T therapy for glioblastoma (GBM).

Glioblastomas are a fast-growing type of brain tumor, which are the most common type of cancerous brain tumor in adults.

CAR-T therapy works by using a patient's own cells to fight cancer—it is known as the most personalized way to treat the disease.

A patient's cells are extracted, modified to produce proteins on their surface, and then injected back into the body to target the tumor directly.

The trial, known as INCIPIENT, was designed to evaluate the safety of CARv3-TEAM-E T cells in patients with recurrent GBM.

CAR-T therapies have been approved for the treatment of blood cancers but the therapy’s use for solid tumors is limited.

Solid tumors contain mixed populations of cells, allowing some cancer cells to continue to evade the immune system’s detection, even after treatment with CAR-T.

The research team set out to overcome this challenge with an innovative strategy that combines two previously separate strategies: CAR-T and bispecific antibodies, known as T-cell engaging antibody molecules (TEAMs).

The version of CAR-TEAM for glioblastoma is designed to be directly injected into a patient’s brain.

The combination approach showed promise in preclinical models of glioblastoma, encouraging the research team to pursue clinical translation.

Three patients were enrolled in the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, between March 2023 and July 2023.

Patients’ T cells were collected and transformed into the new version of CAR-TEAM cells, which were then infused back into each patient.

The patients tolerated the infusions well, though nearly all had fevers and altered mental status soon after infusion.

Just days after a single treatment, patients experienced dramatic reductions in their tumours, with one patient achieving near-complete tumour regression in five days after one treatment.

Assistant professor Bryan Choi from Harvard Medical School said: “This is a story of bench-to-bedside therapy, with a novel cell therapy designed in the laboratories of Massachusetts General Hospital and translated for patient use within five years, to meet an urgent need.

“The CAR-T platform has revolutionized how we think about treating patients with cancer, but solid tumors like glioblastoma have remained challenging to treat because not all cancer cells are exactly alike and cells within the tumor vary.

“Our approach combines two forms of therapy, allowing us to treat glioblastoma in a broader, potentially more effective way.”

One of the patients, a 72-year-old man, saw a 60.7 percent decrease in his tumor which was sustained for six months, while a 57-year-old woman had near complete tumor regression only five days after a single infusion.

The team say that their results are exciting, but that much more research is needed to fine tune this treatment.

Associate professor Marcela Maus, director of the Cellular Immunotherapy Program at the Mass General Cancer Centre, added: “We’ve made an investment in developing the team to enable translation of our innovations in immunotherapy from our lab to the clinic, to transform care for patients with cancer.

“These results are exciting, but they are also just the beginning—they tell us that we are on the right track in pursuing a therapy that has the potential to change the outlook for this intractable disease.

"We haven’t cured patients yet, but that is our audacious goal.”

Co-author Dr. Elizabeth Gerstner concluded: “We report a dramatic and rapid response in these three patients.

“Our work to date shows signs that we are making progress, but there is more to do.”