A team of researchers including an Indian American has developed a groundbreaking invention in the field of cancer treatment that may help coming generations in fighting the deadly disease.
The team including Indian American Professor Sattva Neelapu at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has come up with a study involving the recently approved CD19-targeting chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy shows that 42 percent of patients with aggressive large B-cell lymphoma (a type of cancer) remained in remission at 15 months following treatment.
The study, named ZUMA-1, also reported measurable responses in 82 percent of patients and complete responses in 54 percent. Fifty-six percent were alive at 15 months following therapy, with some remaining cancer-free two years post-treatment.
The study, which began in April 2015, administered axi-cel to 108 patients who had failed prior chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation.
In some cases, the patients who had received chemotherapy were too far progressed to undergo stem cell transplantation and were placed on the trial following chemotherapy.
The patients’ T-cells were extracted through a process called leukapheresis and genetically re-engineered with CAR molecules that help T-cells attack cancer cells. The re-engineered T cells are infused back into the patient.
“With the FDA’s recent approval of this therapy, we believe this is a major advance in the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma and is likely to save or prolong lives of many patients,” said Neelapu.
“This study demonstrated that axi-cel provides remarkable improvement in outcomes over existing therapies for these patients who have no curative options,” he added.
The findings of the study funded by Kite Pharma and in part by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Therapy Acceleration Program were published in the December 10 online issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.