The results, reported yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research , are a new twist on cell therapies that harness a patient’s own immune cells to treat cancer. The new treatment is simpler to make than other cell therapies for advanced lymphoma, or cancer of the lymph system, the study’s leaders say.
CAR-T cells, immune cells genetically modified to carry a surface protein that helps them home in on cancer cells, are the best known cancer cell therapy. Although approved for some types of leukemia and lymphoma, CAR-T cells can cause serious side effects and must be custom-made from a person’s own T cells.equipping a different type of immune cell, natural killer cells
But genetically engineering CAR cells is costly and complex. As a shortcut, scientists are devising protein drugs called bispecific antibodies. These antibodies have two arms, one that sticks to a T cell or an NK cell and the other to a tumor marker. When infused into a patient, the antibodyOne such bispecific, called AFM13, links NK cells to a marker called CD30 on Hodgkin’s lymphoma cells. But the antibody, produced by biotech company Affimed, hasn’t worked well in patients so far.
One woman in her 50s was going into hospice and could barely walk when she joined the trial, Rezvani says. But after treatment, the researcher notes, she “walked out of the ward to a pretty normal life.”
Progress
After these vaxxes you'll probably need it.