The Cancer Advisor

One of the most promising approaches in cellular therapies is immunotherapies using engineered T cells or natural killer (NK) cells expressing chimeric antigen receptors (CARs). Will CAR-NK cell therapies overshadow traditional CAR-T options for the treatment of some cancers? Recently researchers have tried to modify natural killer (NK) cells with chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) to increase potential to bind and destroy cancer cells, known as NK cell therapy. Here we describe the differences between CAR T cell therapies and CAR NK cell therapies to consider when developing cancer treatments for patients. What is CAR-T? T cells are part of the adaptive immune system and are intended to generate a long lasting protective immune response. By engineering T cells with the Natural Killer Group 2D (NKG2D) receptor, they become NKG2D CAR T cell therapies. What is CAR-NK?  NK cells are a part of the innate immune system and are the first line of defense against foreign infections and canc...

A collaborative project to bring the promise of cell therapy to patients with a deadly form of brain cancer has shown dramatic results among the first patients to receive the novel treatment. In a paper published today in The New England Journal of Medicine , researchers from the Mass General Cancer Center, a member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, shared the results for the first three patient cases from a phase 1 clinical trial evaluating a new approach to CAR-T therapy for glioblastoma (GBM). The trial, known as INCIPIENT, is designed to evaluate the safety of CARv3-TEAM-E T cells in patients with recurrent GBM. Just days after a single treatment, patients experienced dramatic reductions in their tumors, with one patient achieving near-complete tumor regression. In time, the researchers observed tumor progression in these patients, but given the strategy’s promising preliminary results, the team will pursue strategies to extend the durability of response. “This is a s...