The Culture of Different MKTG_150064494_2018 Service Line Big Book Full_FIN | Page 26

PA G E 2 4
The Culture of Different
CANCER
A Living Therapy:
Refining CAR-T Cells for
a Broader Application
“ If T cells see the
cancer, they
kill it; we're
using this
technology to
arm T cells to
see the cancer."
T E R RY F RY, M D
Pediatric Hematologist and
Oncologist, Center for Cancer
and Blood Disorders
When engaged with immune cells, chimeric antigen receptors, or CARs, equip the
body to search and destroy certain types of cancers. Pediatric hematologist-oncologist
Terry Fry, MD, was among the first scientists to investigate the potential of modified
retroviruses to insert genes into a child’s own T cells targeting CD19, a surface protein
expressed on nearly all cells affected by acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
Approved by the FDA for pediatric use in August 2017, the therapy achieved an
astonishing 80 percent remission rate in kids with otherwise unresponsive ALL.
“For three to six months after the initial infusion,” says Dr. Fry, “these kids have the
therapy living in their bodies. Every time there’s a leukemia cell moping around,
there’s a T cell to eradicate it. But eventually these cells die off.”
When they do, the cancer often returns — frequently in a mutated form that
evades detection.
Dr. Fry’s research team has established that CAR-Ts targeting CD22, another protein
on the surface of leukemia cells, can induce remissions in better than 70 percent of
patients — including kids who have already received CD19-targeted cells and relapsed.
Now at Children’s Hospital Colorado, Dr. Fry is working to develop a CAR targeting both
CD19 and CD22. The goal: decrease resistance and increase the durability of remissions.
He’s also working to apply CAR-T technology to other types of cancer; Dr. Fry and
Children’s Colorado neuro-oncologist Nick Foreman, MD, are currently collaborating to
develop a CAR that could combat brain tumors. Other collaborations are in the works.
The implications are broader still. “Treatment for autoimmune diseases involves
manipulating the same cells we’re manipulating,” says Dr. Fry (see p. 68). “There are
ways to use these same procedures to turn these cells off instead of on. This absolutely
has potential beyond cancer.”
“ To get something from
the lab into a clinical trial
is a daunting, challenging
process. We’re able to
do that because we
work together well as
a team and are focused
on getting new lab
discoveries to the patients
who need them.”
ADAM GREEN, MD
Pediatric Neuro-Oncologist, Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders
The Culture of Different
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