Cellular therapy

[Artefact]

Anybody have thoughts on progress in cellular therapy and its potential role in oncology in the next 20 years?

My basic understanding of cellular therapy is that it is essentially an apheresis process of removing lymphocytes and then transfecting them with a particularly anti-cancer antibody gene and reintroducing them into the patients body. It seems like a cheaper way to deliver monoclonal antibodies than we have at present, and it would of course allow for cell-mediated killing as well.

I wonder though if cellular therapy is consistent with cytotoxic chemotherapy. Wouldn't the chemo damage the transfected lymphocytes - or at least prevent proliferation...

Will heme/onc take on this treatment modality in addition to its other roles, or will it probably require a separate training path? What role would transfusion/pathology have in this technology?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[gutonc]

Anybody have thoughts on progress in cellular therapy and its potential role in oncology in the next 20 years?

My basic understanding of cellular therapy is that it is essentially an apheresis process of removing lymphocytes and then transfecting them with a particularly anti-cancer antibody gene and reintroducing them into the patients body. It seems like a cheaper way to deliver monoclonal antibodies than we have at present, and it would of course allow for cell-mediated killing as well.

I wonder though if cellular therapy is consistent with cytotoxic chemotherapy. Wouldn't the chemo damage the transfected lymphocytes - or at least prevent proliferation...

Will heme/onc take on this treatment modality in addition to its other roles, or will it probably require a separate training path? What role would transfusion/pathology have in this technology?

There's one FDA approved product like this, Provenge. It's way more expensive than any of the mAb therapies I can think of and it has no survival benefit over chemo.

So...maybe. And yes it will be oncologists who do it. It's no different than other infusions. We do it in my community office once a month or so.

 

[oncomine]

I dont know what vector they use to insert the fusion protein, but when viral vectors were used to correct SCID, Leukemia genes started turning on.

I'm not sure where to go for official data on the drug?

 

[Artefact]

There's one FDA approved product like this, Provenge. It's way more expensive than any of the mAb therapies I can think of and it has no survival benefit over chemo.

So...maybe. And yes it will be oncologists who do it. It's no different than other infusions. We do it in my community office once a month or so.

Interesting - I looked up provenge, I don't know why it would be so expensive. As far as I can tell, all you do is take out lymphocytes and incubate them in PSA for a few days (and some other antigen as well) and them infuse them back. That's ordinary stuff - somebody has to change the media out, but otherwise it should be super cheap. Is the cost all due to patent protection?

 

[Artefact]

I dont know what vector they use to insert the fusion protein, but when viral vectors were used to correct SCID, Leukemia genes started turning on.

I'm not sure where to go for official data on the drug?

I'd probably transfect in some tamoxifen inducible death gene, just in case there was some kind of leukemic transformation. I dunno if they'd do this in reality.

 

[qv3755]

there's been a lot of progress in the field of Hem/Onc over the last couple of decades and especially since the completion of the human genome project. We have seen the field of pharmacogenomic took off (target and dose specific based on the pt's genetic and tumor make-ups). However, relapses are still common since cancer cells are very smart at making adjustment.. Anyone thought on where's the future of our field? I believe immunotherapy through non-myelo allogeneic BMT + custom DLI is the key for cure. Anyone has any other ideas? thoughts?

 

[Artefact]

there's been a lot of progress in the field of Hem/Onc over the last couple of decades and especially since the completion of the human genome project. We have seen the field of pharmacogenomic took off (target and dose specific based on the pt's genetic and tumor make-ups). However, relapses are still common since cancer cells are very smart at making adjustment.. Anyone thought on where's the future of our field? I believe immunotherapy through non-myelo allogeneic BMT + custom DLI is the key for cure. Anyone has any other ideas? thoughts?

What's custom DLI?

 

[gutonc]

What's custom DLI?

Donor Lymphocyte Infusion. At this point it's a last ditch to rescue a failed/ relapsed allo BMT. Rarely works but worth a shot when you're out of other options.