News

The president of the ANA offered his perspective on these novel genetic therapies, as well as other a few other areas of interest.

Gene-edited glypican-3 (GPC3)-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells with deficient programmed death–1 have greater cytotoxicity compared with wild-type GPC3-targeted T cells in GPC3-positive hepatocellular carcinoma, based on results from a recent study.

After a single dose of RGX gene therapy, the mean change in BCVA was +8 letters in cohort 3 and the average number of injections over the course of 6 months was 1.3 in a phase 1 cohort study.

Armin Ghobadi, MD, discusses the evolution and expansion of CAR T-cell therapy in oncology and how to maximize its application across liquid and solid tumors.

A life-saving therapy is challenging to administer and poses financial risks for patients and institutions alike. Speakers at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy Nexus 2018 address some approaches to paying for it while CMS develops long-term policies.

A survivor of chronic lymphocytic leukemia who participated in the first chimeric antigen receptor T-cell trial in 2010 looks back at his experience and also discusses his views on how patient-reported outcomes (PROs) should be used, if at all, by CMS.

VY-AADC01 demonstrated promising early signs of activity and safety for patients with Parkinson disease.

Frontline pembrolizumab monotherapy showed an improvement in overall survival and duration of response versus standard therapy in patients with PD-L1–positive recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; however, there was not a similar improvement in progression-free survival or overall response rate with the PD-1 inhibitor.

The combination of tepotinib plus gefitinib improved progression-free survival and overall response versus chemotherapy in patients with MET mutated EGFR-positive non–small cell lung cancer resistant to prior EGFR TKI therapy.

Since the inception of the idea more than 3 decades ago and its initial development 20 years later, Sarepta Therapeutics’ micro-dystrophin gene therapy has now made its way to human trials.

The gene therapy is also being assessed for long-term safety data, as well as an additional delivery method.

Switchable chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells with a switch directed towards human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has similar efficacy as conventional HER2 CAR T cells while also having a greater control over treatment toxicities.

Although CD19 has proved to be an attractive and effective target for chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies in hematologic malignancies, a significant subset of patients treated with this groundbreaking form of immunotherapy eventually relapse.

A novel mesenchymal stem cell therapy produced intriguing phase II data and has moved into a randomized, pivotal phase III clinical trial.

Multiple gene signature assays have been developed that supply prognostic information for decisions on adjuvant chemotherapy and whether therapy should be of extended duration.

Cellular therapies have the potential to make a meaningful difference for patients with neurological disorders, if used correctly.

Tisagenlecleucel's high price is aligned with the benefit the chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy provides over a patient's life. Approximately 40% of patients treated are expected to be long-term survivors.

We visited San Francisco, California for a State of the Science Summit on Hematologic Malignancies. The meeting covered novel agents and combinations in lymphoma, updates in acute and chronic leukemias, and modalities in the management of multiple myeloma.

Nina Shah, MD, discusses the present and future of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy in myeloma.

Investigators are evaluating whether eryaspase (Graspa), an L-asparaginase-based therapy that triggers tumor cell death, can extend survival for patients with pancreatic cancer.

Brian Till, MD, discusses the rapidly evolving field of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells.

In a small trial, the AAVrh74.MHCK7.micro-dystrophin therapy has shown high levels of transduced micro-dystrophin expression.

Charalambos (Babis) Andreadis, MD, MSCE, discusses the use of CAR T-cell therapy in patients with DLBCL and the associated toxicities with each product, as well as other promising therapies in the paradigm.

We visited Chicago, Illinois for a State of the Science Summit on Renal Cell Carcinoma and Bladder Cancer. The meeting covered the genomics of bladder cancer, novel approaches to non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, side effect management from immunotherapy, as well as the integration of immunotherapy, chemotherapy, and targeted therapy in genitourinary cancers.

Improvements in chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, approved last year by the FDA for leukemias and lymphomas, were a focus of a session by a National Cancer Institute (NCI) researcher who spoke at the CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference taking place in New York City this week.

A single leukemia cell was able to reproduce and cause a deadly relapse of pediatric B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) after it had bonded with the leukemia-targeting chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) lentivirus and infused back into a patient. The case of the cell that became resistant to CAR T-cell therapy was published in the journal Nature Medicine Monday.

Loyola University Chicago and Loyola Medicine announced plans this week to develop their own chimeric antigen receptor T-cells that would have less toxic side effects.

Lurbinectedin plus doxorubicin demonstrated significant clinical activity as a second-line therapy for patients with small cell lung cancer, especially when excluding refractory patients.

With the planned submission of an IND for the first AAV gene therapy for the rare genetic condition, some experts are wondering if things are moving too quickly.

Abhinav Deol, MD, discusses the basics of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, potential new directions for these products, and the possible impact new products might have on the field.