Skill. Confidence. Hope.
Health Centers A-Z:
Featured Stories
Margo Sorgman was diagnosed with an MPN, polycythemia vera (PV), just a few months ago at the age of 71. She shares her story of learning about the condition, meeting with Dr. Brady Stein, and how she’s doing today.
Jeff Folloder, a hubby, father, son, and cancer survivor, discusses his own individual journey with CLL and his philanthropic efforts in the cancer community.
Why do I have lung cancer if I’ve never smoked? Dianne Stewart, a stage IV cancer patient, asked herself this question following her diagnosis. Hear about her initial stage of shock and denial and her advice for others.
Featured Event:
Understanding Genetics and Developing Research
Drs. Gareth Morgan, Frits van Rhee, Faith Davies and guest pro, Dr. Guido Tricot, will speak about the significance of genetic profiling, imaging and how to get involved with developing research. Learn more in-person or LIVE from the convenience of your own home.
September 9, two thousand seventeen – Online and In-Person in Little Rock, AR
Numerous Myeloma
Is CAR T-Cell Therapy the Future of Cancer Treatment?
Published on June Four, two thousand fourteen
Dr. David Maloney, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington, discusses his excitement over CAR T-cell (Chimeric Antigen Receptor) therapy expansion. As a leader in this research, Dr. Maloney describes the wave of research efforts behind this adoptive T-cell therapy using the patients own immune cells to fight back against the cancer, including blood cancers like chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Dr. Maloney provides insight on the process of collecting T cells and what the future holds for CARs therapy and its potential extension to not only blood cancers, but perhaps broadening its application in lymphoma, lung, ovarian and other solid tumors.
Featuring
David Maloney, MD, PhD
Join Our Free Community
Become a member to access our latest content and be the very first to know about fresh programs and information.
Transcript
Please reminisce the opinions voiced on Patient Power are not necessarily the views of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, its medical staff or Patient Power. Our discussions are not a substitute for seeking medical advice or care from your own doctor. That`s how you`ll get care that`s most adequate for you.
Hello and welcome to Patient Power sponsored by the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. I’m Andrew Schorr. There is a lot of excitement about therapy for blood cancers, in particular using chimeric antigen receptors, also known as CARs, and there’s the hope that this treatment can also benefit patients with solid tumors.
Helping lead the research is Dr. David Maloney, who is at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. Dr. Maloney joins us now. Dr. Maloney, why all the excitement about CARs?
Well, you know, I think, Andrew, if you think about how the immune system works, the immune system is utterly powerful in fighting off viral infections. And if we could train the immune system to attack cancer in the same way that it’s, for example, attacking a virus, then we could have a very potent fresh therapy. And that’s what the excitement is about CAR T cells. In this–in this system, basically we use an antibody, a monoclonal antibody which has specificity for a target, and we’ve modified a T cell to then express that receptor so that the T cell can then attack the cancer cell that we’re attempting to treat.
Dr. Maloney, using CAR therapy, I know you had some very promising results in the treatment of someone with lymphoma. Tell us about that result.
Well, we’ve just began a clinical trial over about the past seven months here in Seattle utilizing CAR T cells for a multitude of B?cell malignancies, and the types of malignancies that we’re treating are B?cell tumors that have a target called CD19. And CD19 is on most types of non?Hodgkin lymphoma that are B?cell type, and it’s also on CLL and acute lymphocytic leukemia that’s a B?cell type.
And so the very first step of this is to determine–to attempt to figure out what the correct cell dose is and to figure out what the potential toxicities are. So we’re presently doing a Phase I examine where we’re enhancing the dose of T cells in patients with these malignancies.
So if I’ve got this right, you’re taking the patient’s own cells, using them outside the bod and making a personalized drug and then providing it back to them. Do it I have it right?
That’s exactly the idea. It’s a–I mean if you look at it it’s a customized therapy, and so what–how we actually do it is we see the patients and do a screening test to make sure that they have some T cells in their blood. And then we collect T cells by a process called leukapheresis where patients go on a machine that takes blood out of essentially one arm and runs it through a machine and puts the blood back in the other arm and takes off the fraction of cells that contain the T cells. Then in the laboratory, we isolate those T cells, then put in this receptor and then grow them and then give them back to the patient about four or five weeks later.
So you’re boosting the power of a patient’s own immune system to fight the cancer that it missed the very first time?
Yeah, it’s not even boosting. It’s making their immune system capable of recognizing the tumor cells and then–and then having that attack the tumor. So unlike, you know, antibody therapy where you–or chemotherapy where you give the treatment and then it just washes out or is degraded in the bod, T cells are a living thing. And so when they grow in the patient, they can actually recognize the tumor cells, that causes the T cells to proliferate, causes them to kill the tumor. And then if we’re fortunate, they expand and go–proceed to go after the tumor cells. So they can–you know, one treatment theoretically could lead to long?lasting anti?tumor activity.
I know there are patients with solid tumors who are following all this news about CARs, wondering can it work for them. At your institution, what’s the intention to see if this research that’s been promising in blood cancers can be broadened?
Well, that’s the–that’s indeed the Holy Grail. We’re using CD19 in this explore, and that’s our–that’s our truly very first attempt to determine how widely applicable we can make this therapy. There are a lot of challenges to overcome. We have to be able to get the T cells, we have to make them, they have to be able to grow, and then they have to function, and they have to function without causing too much toxicity.
But the limitation of the treatment is indeed directed by the target that the T cells go against. So ultimately if you could find an antibody against other antigens on other tumor cells, then theoretically a T cell could be targeted to that same antigen. And as you know, antibodies have become commonplace in the treatment of many malignancies including solid cancers, lung cancer, breast cancer, etc., so it’s not out of the field of possibility that CAR T cells will be able to be directed against those targets, and we’re working on that very actively now. Don’t have any trials up and running yet, but that’s soon to go after.
Dr. Maloney, I know you’ve been involved on the very ground floor of development of titillating monoclonal antibodies, rituximab (Rituxan) for example. Do you see CAR therapy as perhaps part of the next wave of cancer therapy?
I’m actually certain that it will be one of the next advances because it’s truly marrying the specificity of an antibody with the power of a T cell. So T cells are very, very active killers and can be very potent, and–when they’re revved up against whatever their target is. Antibodies are very specific but, unluckily, have a relatively limited capability to kill cells,. And so as you know, antibodies such as rituximab can–are clearly an advance, but they have to be repetitively given, and they have relatively limited capability to kill cells.
But if you duo an antibody essentially onto now a T cell to make the T cell reactive to the same antigen, then you have a replicating and very powerful anti?tumor effect. So I’m very enthusiastic about this. It’s very titillating. We need to learn how to use it. We need to learn what the toxicities are and how to use it.
Well, you were on the ground floor of monoclonal antibody therapy, and that’s worked out. And now you’re on the ground floor of CAR therapy. We wish you fine success with your research, Dr. Maloney, and thanks for being with us today.
Thank you very much, Andrew.
I’m Andrew Schorr. We connect you with experts like Dr. David Maloney so you hear the latest. Thanks for joining us. Recall, skill can be the best medicine of all.
Please reminisce the opinions voiced on Patient Power are not necessarily the views of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, its medical staff or Patient Power. Our discussions are not a substitute for seeking medical advice or care from your own doctor. That`s how you`ll get care that`s most suitable for you.
Is CAR T-Cell Therapy the Future of Cancer Treatment, Numerous Myeloma, Patient Power
Skill. Confidence. Hope.
Health Centers A-Z:
Featured Stories
Margo Sorgman was diagnosed with an MPN, polycythemia vera (PV), just a few months ago at the age of 71. She shares her story of learning about the condition, meeting with Dr. Brady Stein, and how she’s doing today.
Jeff Folloder, a spouse, father, son, and cancer survivor, discusses his own individual journey with CLL and his philanthropic efforts in the cancer community.
Why do I have lung cancer if I’ve never smoked? Dianne Stewart, a stage IV cancer patient, asked herself this question following her diagnosis. Hear about her initial stage of shock and denial and her advice for others.
Featured Event:
Understanding Genetics and Developing Research
Drs. Gareth Morgan, Frits van Rhee, Faith Davies and guest pro, Dr. Guido Tricot, will speak about the significance of genetic profiling, imaging and how to get involved with developing research. Learn more in-person or LIVE from the convenience of your own home.
September 9, two thousand seventeen – Online and In-Person in Little Rock, AR
Numerous Myeloma
Is CAR T-Cell Therapy the Future of Cancer Treatment?
Published on June Four, two thousand fourteen
Dr. David Maloney, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington, discusses his excitement over CAR T-cell (Chimeric Antigen Receptor) therapy expansion. As a leader in this research, Dr. Maloney describes the wave of research efforts behind this adoptive T-cell therapy using the patients own immune cells to fight back against the cancer, including blood cancers like chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Dr. Maloney provides insight on the process of collecting T cells and what the future holds for CARs therapy and its potential extension to not only blood cancers, but perhaps broadening its application in lymphoma, lung, ovarian and other solid tumors.
Featuring
David Maloney, MD, PhD
Join Our Free Community
Become a member to access our latest content and be the very first to know about fresh programs and information.
Transcript
Please reminisce the opinions voiced on Patient Power are not necessarily the views of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, its medical staff or Patient Power. Our discussions are not a substitute for seeking medical advice or care from your own doctor. That`s how you`ll get care that`s most suitable for you.
Hello and welcome to Patient Power sponsored by the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. I’m Andrew Schorr. There is a lot of excitement about therapy for blood cancers, in particular using chimeric antigen receptors, also known as CARs, and there’s the hope that this treatment can also benefit patients with solid tumors.
Helping lead the research is Dr. David Maloney, who is at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. Dr. Maloney joins us now. Dr. Maloney, why all the excitement about CARs?
Well, you know, I think, Andrew, if you think about how the immune system works, the immune system is enormously powerful in fighting off viral infections. And if we could train the immune system to attack cancer in the same way that it’s, for example, attacking a virus, then we could have a very potent fresh therapy. And that’s what the excitement is about CAR T cells. In this–in this system, basically we use an antibody, a monoclonal antibody which has specificity for a target, and we’ve modified a T cell to then express that receptor so that the T cell can then attack the cancer cell that we’re attempting to treat.
Dr. Maloney, using CAR therapy, I know you had some very promising results in the treatment of someone with lymphoma. Tell us about that result.
Well, we’ve just began a clinical trial over about the past seven months here in Seattle utilizing CAR T cells for a diversity of B?cell malignancies, and the types of malignancies that we’re treating are B?cell tumors that have a target called CD19. And CD19 is on most types of non?Hodgkin lymphoma that are B?cell type, and it’s also on CLL and acute lymphocytic leukemia that’s a B?cell type.
And so the very first step of this is to determine–to attempt to figure out what the correct cell dose is and to figure out what the potential toxicities are. So we’re presently doing a Phase I explore where we’re enlargening the dose of T cells in patients with these malignancies.
So if I’ve got this right, you’re taking the patient’s own cells, using them outside the bod and making a personalized drug and then providing it back to them. Do it I have it right?
That’s exactly the idea. It’s a–I mean if you look at it it’s a customized therapy, and so what–how we actually do it is we see the patients and do a screening test to make sure that they have some T cells in their blood. And then we collect T cells by a process called leukapheresis where patients go on a machine that takes blood out of essentially one arm and runs it through a machine and puts the blood back in the other arm and takes off the fraction of cells that contain the T cells. Then in the laboratory, we isolate those T cells, then put in this receptor and then grow them and then give them back to the patient about four or five weeks later.
So you’re boosting the power of a patient’s own immune system to fight the cancer that it missed the very first time?
Yeah, it’s not even boosting. It’s making their immune system capable of recognizing the tumor cells and then–and then having that attack the tumor. So unlike, you know, antibody therapy where you–or chemotherapy where you give the treatment and then it just washes out or is degraded in the assets, T cells are a living thing. And so when they grow in the patient, they can actually recognize the tumor cells, that causes the T cells to proliferate, causes them to kill the tumor. And then if we’re fortunate, they expand and go–proceed to go after the tumor cells. So they can–you know, one treatment theoretically could lead to long?lasting anti?tumor activity.
I know there are patients with solid tumors who are following all this news about CARs, wondering can it work for them. At your institution, what’s the intention to see if this research that’s been promising in blood cancers can be broadened?
Well, that’s the–that’s indeed the Holy Grail. We’re using CD19 in this investigate, and that’s our–that’s our truly very first attempt to determine how widely applicable we can make this therapy. There are a lot of challenges to overcome. We have to be able to get the T cells, we have to make them, they have to be able to grow, and then they have to function, and they have to function without causing too much toxicity.
But the limitation of the treatment is indeed directed by the target that the T cells go against. So ultimately if you could find an antibody against other antigens on other tumor cells, then theoretically a T cell could be targeted to that same antigen. And as you know, antibodies have become commonplace in the treatment of many malignancies including solid cancers, lung cancer, breast cancer, etc., so it’s not out of the field of possibility that CAR T cells will be able to be directed against those targets, and we’re working on that very actively now. Don’t have any trials up and running yet, but that’s soon to go after.
Dr. Maloney, I know you’ve been involved on the very ground floor of development of titillating monoclonal antibodies, rituximab (Rituxan) for example. Do you see CAR therapy as perhaps part of the next wave of cancer therapy?
I’m actually certain that it will be one of the next advances because it’s truly marrying the specificity of an antibody with the power of a T cell. So T cells are very, very active killers and can be very potent, and–when they’re revved up against whatever their target is. Antibodies are very specific but, unluckily, have a relatively limited capability to kill cells,. And so as you know, antibodies such as rituximab can–are clearly an advance, but they have to be repetitively given, and they have relatively limited capability to kill cells.
But if you duo an antibody essentially onto now a T cell to make the T cell reactive to the same antigen, then you have a replicating and very powerful anti?tumor effect. So I’m very enthusiastic about this. It’s very arousing. We need to learn how to use it. We need to learn what the toxicities are and how to use it.
Well, you were on the ground floor of monoclonal antibody therapy, and that’s worked out. And now you’re on the ground floor of CAR therapy. We wish you fine success with your research, Dr. Maloney, and thanks for being with us today.
Thank you very much, Andrew.
I’m Andrew Schorr. We connect you with experts like Dr. David Maloney so you hear the latest. Thanks for joining us. Recall, skill can be the best medicine of all.
Please reminisce the opinions voiced on Patient Power are not necessarily the views of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, its medical staff or Patient Power. Our discussions are not a substitute for seeking medical advice or care from your own doctor. That`s how you`ll get care that`s most adequate for you.
Is CAR T-Cell Therapy the Future of Cancer Treatment, Numerous Myeloma, Patient Power
Skill. Confidence. Hope.
Health Centers A-Z:
Featured Stories
Margo Sorgman was diagnosed with an MPN, polycythemia vera (PV), just a few months ago at the age of 71. She shares her story of learning about the condition, meeting with Dr. Brady Stein, and how she’s doing today.
Jeff Folloder, a hubby, father, son, and cancer survivor, discusses his own individual journey with CLL and his philanthropic efforts in the cancer community.
Why do I have lung cancer if I’ve never smoked? Dianne Stewart, a stage IV cancer patient, asked herself this question following her diagnosis. Hear about her initial stage of shock and denial and her advice for others.
Featured Event:
Understanding Genetics and Developing Research
Drs. Gareth Morgan, Frits van Rhee, Faith Davies and guest accomplished, Dr. Guido Tricot, will speak about the significance of genetic profiling, imaging and how to get involved with developing research. Learn more in-person or LIVE from the convenience of your own home.
September 9, two thousand seventeen – Online and In-Person in Little Rock, AR
Numerous Myeloma
Is CAR T-Cell Therapy the Future of Cancer Treatment?
Published on June Four, two thousand fourteen
Dr. David Maloney, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington, discusses his excitement over CAR T-cell (Chimeric Antigen Receptor) therapy expansion. As a leader in this research, Dr. Maloney describes the wave of research efforts behind this adoptive T-cell therapy using the patients own immune cells to fight back against the cancer, including blood cancers like chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Dr. Maloney provides insight on the process of collecting T cells and what the future holds for CARs therapy and its potential extension to not only blood cancers, but perhaps broadening its application in lymphoma, lung, ovarian and other solid tumors.
Featuring
David Maloney, MD, PhD
Join Our Free Community
Become a member to access our latest content and be the very first to know about fresh programs and information.
Transcript
Please reminisce the opinions voiced on Patient Power are not necessarily the views of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, its medical staff or Patient Power. Our discussions are not a substitute for seeking medical advice or care from your own doctor. That`s how you`ll get care that`s most suitable for you.
Hello and welcome to Patient Power sponsored by the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. I’m Andrew Schorr. There is a lot of excitement about therapy for blood cancers, in particular using chimeric antigen receptors, also known as CARs, and there’s the hope that this treatment can also benefit patients with solid tumors.
Helping lead the research is Dr. David Maloney, who is at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. Dr. Maloney joins us now. Dr. Maloney, why all the excitement about CARs?
Well, you know, I think, Andrew, if you think about how the immune system works, the immune system is utterly powerful in fighting off viral infections. And if we could train the immune system to attack cancer in the same way that it’s, for example, attacking a virus, then we could have a very potent fresh therapy. And that’s what the excitement is about CAR T cells. In this–in this system, basically we use an antibody, a monoclonal antibody which has specificity for a target, and we’ve modified a T cell to then express that receptor so that the T cell can then attack the cancer cell that we’re attempting to treat.
Dr. Maloney, using CAR therapy, I know you had some very promising results in the treatment of someone with lymphoma. Tell us about that result.
Well, we’ve just commenced a clinical trial over about the past seven months here in Seattle utilizing CAR T cells for a multiplicity of B?cell malignancies, and the types of malignancies that we’re treating are B?cell tumors that have a target called CD19. And CD19 is on most types of non?Hodgkin lymphoma that are B?cell type, and it’s also on CLL and acute lymphocytic leukemia that’s a B?cell type.
And so the very first step of this is to determine–to attempt to figure out what the correct cell dose is and to figure out what the potential toxicities are. So we’re presently doing a Phase I examine where we’re enhancing the dose of T cells in patients with these malignancies.
So if I’ve got this right, you’re taking the patient’s own cells, using them outside the bod and making a personalized drug and then providing it back to them. Do it I have it right?
That’s exactly the idea. It’s a–I mean if you look at it it’s a customized therapy, and so what–how we actually do it is we see the patients and do a screening test to make sure that they have some T cells in their blood. And then we collect T cells by a process called leukapheresis where patients go on a machine that takes blood out of essentially one arm and runs it through a machine and puts the blood back in the other arm and takes off the fraction of cells that contain the T cells. Then in the laboratory, we isolate those T cells, then put in this receptor and then grow them and then give them back to the patient about four or five weeks later.
So you’re boosting the power of a patient’s own immune system to fight the cancer that it missed the very first time?
Yeah, it’s not even boosting. It’s making their immune system capable of recognizing the tumor cells and then–and then having that attack the tumor. So unlike, you know, antibody therapy where you–or chemotherapy where you give the treatment and then it just washes out or is degraded in the bod, T cells are a living thing. And so when they grow in the patient, they can actually recognize the tumor cells, that causes the T cells to proliferate, causes them to kill the tumor. And then if we’re fortunate, they expand and go–proceed to go after the tumor cells. So they can–you know, one treatment theoretically could lead to long?lasting anti?tumor activity.
I know there are patients with solid tumors who are following all this news about CARs, wondering can it work for them. At your institution, what’s the intention to see if this research that’s been promising in blood cancers can be broadened?
Well, that’s the–that’s indeed the Holy Grail. We’re using CD19 in this explore, and that’s our–that’s our indeed very first attempt to determine how widely applicable we can make this therapy. There are a lot of challenges to overcome. We have to be able to get the T cells, we have to make them, they have to be able to grow, and then they have to function, and they have to function without causing too much toxicity.
But the limitation of the treatment is indeed directed by the target that the T cells go against. So ultimately if you could find an antibody against other antigens on other tumor cells, then theoretically a T cell could be targeted to that same antigen. And as you know, antibodies have become commonplace in the treatment of many malignancies including solid cancers, lung cancer, breast cancer, etc., so it’s not out of the area of possibility that CAR T cells will be able to be directed against those targets, and we’re working on that very actively now. Don’t have any trials up and running yet, but that’s soon to go after.
Dr. Maloney, I know you’ve been involved on the very ground floor of development of arousing monoclonal antibodies, rituximab (Rituxan) for example. Do you see CAR therapy as perhaps part of the next wave of cancer therapy?
I’m actually certain that it will be one of the next advances because it’s indeed marrying the specificity of an antibody with the power of a T cell. So T cells are very, very active killers and can be very potent, and–when they’re revved up against whatever their target is. Antibodies are very specific but, unluckily, have a relatively limited capability to kill cells,. And so as you know, antibodies such as rituximab can–are clearly an advance, but they have to be repetitively given, and they have relatively limited capability to kill cells.
But if you duo an antibody essentially onto now a T cell to make the T cell reactive to the same antigen, then you have a replicating and very powerful anti?tumor effect. So I’m very enthusiastic about this. It’s very arousing. We need to learn how to use it. We need to learn what the toxicities are and how to use it.
Well, you were on the ground floor of monoclonal antibody therapy, and that’s worked out. And now you’re on the ground floor of CAR therapy. We wish you good success with your research, Dr. Maloney, and thanks for being with us today.
Thank you very much, Andrew.
I’m Andrew Schorr. We connect you with experts like Dr. David Maloney so you hear the latest. Thanks for joining us. Reminisce, skill can be the best medicine of all.
Please reminisce the opinions voiced on Patient Power are not necessarily the views of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, its medical staff or Patient Power. Our discussions are not a substitute for seeking medical advice or care from your own doctor. That`s how you`ll get care that`s most suitable for you.