Recent research shows promise in a novel CAR T therapy after cancer relapse, and a novel treatment for multiple myeloma.
Researchers from Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center presented preliminary results of an ongoing Phase I clinical trial demonstrating successful re-treatment with CAR T cell therapy for patients whose cancers relapsed after previous CAR T therapy at the 2022 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting.
Interleukin-18 is a protein which in humans is encoded by the IL18 gene. “We designed an ‘armored’ CAR that secretes IL18 where we found it to have potent antitumor efficacy in our preclinical studies,” said Carl June. (Image: Penn Medicine News)
CAR T therapies have revolutionized blood cancer treatment over the last decade, providing hope for patients who have run out of conventional treatment options, but patients whose cancers return or stop responding to CAR T therapy have limited options for further treatment.
The first-in-human study evaluated a novel fourth-generation CAR T therapy in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) who had previously received CAR T therapy that failed to stop their cancer. The study is the first clinical trial in the United States with anti-CD19 CAR T cells secreting interleukin 18 (IL 18). The early results show this combination approach is safe and did not result in new or increased side effects compared to other commercially available CAR T therapies.
Senior author and CAR T pioneer Carl June,led the preclinical research that demonstrated IL18 could enhance CAR T activity. “We designed an ‘armored’ CAR that secretes IL18 … where we found it to have potent antitumor efficacy in our preclinical studies,” says June, who is the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine, and director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at the Abramson Cancer Center.
Additional research presented at ASH included a first-of-its-kind drug known as modakafusp alfa has shown early potential in combating multiple myeloma, a form of bone marrow cancer, in a study presented by researchers from the Abramson Cancer Center.
“We are excited by these findings and continue to be optimistic about the potential this treatment holds for patients with multiple myeloma,” says presenting author Dan Vogl,an expert in blood cancers, medical director of the Clinical Research Unit at the Abramson Cancer Center, and an associate professor of hematology-oncology at the Perelman School of Medicine. “We have been working with this new medication at Penn since we gave it to the first patient ever to receive it five years ago. We now see that a substantial number of patients benefit from modakafusp as a single agent, including patients whose myeloma has become resistant to other treatments, which is really impressive.”
Griffin Pitt, right, works with two other student researchers to test the conductivity, total dissolved solids, salinity, and temperature of water below a sand dam in Kenya.
Griffin Pitt’s upbringing made her passionate about water access and pollution, and Penn has given her the opportunity to explore these issues back home in North Carolina and abroad.
Rashi Sabherwal, a doctoral student in political science, explores how women engage politically in society in informal roles through her research in India.
Helping robots work together to explore the Moon and Mars
Penn Engineers, NASA, and five other universities tested robotic systems designed to help unmanned explorers cooperate in the dunes of White Sands, New Mexico, paving the way for Moon and Mars exploration.
