The stem-cell revolution targeting leukemia

[Sally]

Stem cell research will be the blessing of many sick people.

The stem-cell revolution targeting leukemia

Cellect’s stem-cell selection kit could make bone-marrow transplants as low-risk as getting your appendix out.

A new tool is on the way in the fight against leukemia. Image via Shutterstock.com

A new Israeli company is using the natural process of cell death to help people undergoing transplants of all kinds live longer. This counterintuitive approach is the vision of Cellect – and could radically change the way people with leukemia manage their disease.

Stem cells hold the promise to eradicate cancer and other devastating diseases. But one of the biggest bottlenecks for clinicians and researchers is getting enough stem cells in a blood sample to use in transplantation.

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The stem-cell revolution targeting leukemia | ISRAEL21c

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Awww - ain't dat a cute baby?...

Gene-edited immune cells treat 1-year-old's 'incurable' leukemia
Nov. 6, 2015 | Doctors called the success of the treatment "a miracle," and the company developing it is accelerating the start of clinical trials.

Doctors cleared a 1-year-old of an aggressive form of leukemia using an experimental treatment that had previously only been tested in mice, which researchers said could be a "huge" step forward in treating leukemia and other cancers. The girl, named Layla, had relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, or ALL, and already been treated with chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, as well as another experimental treatment -- none of which kept the cancer from getting worse.

At the point doctors were beginning to recommend palliative care because they were out of options, Layla's parents were told about experimental work being done on genetically-edited immune cells at the hospital where she was being treated. "The approach was looking incredibly successful in laboratory studies, and so when I heard there were no options left for treating this child's disease, I thought 'why don't we use the new UCART19 cells?'' said Dr. Waseem Qasim, a professor of cell and gene therapy at University College London, in a press release. "The treatment was highly experimental and we had to get special permissions, but she appeared ideally suited for this type of approach." Layla was diagnosed with ALL at 14 weeks old -- doctors called it "one of the most aggressive" forms of the disease they'd ever seen -- starting several rounds of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant almost immediately. The disease returned seven weeks later.

One-year-old Layla, above, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia when she was 14 weeks old. An experimental immune cell treatment cleared her body of the disease after several rounds of chemotherapy and another experimental treatment failed to cure the cancer.​

After trying another experimental treatment, doctors suggested moving Layla to palliative care unless her parents were open to trying UCART19, modified T-cells that are genetically reprogrammed to target and kill leukemia cells. Once doctors received special clearance to use the cells with Layla, because they'd only been tested with mice, they gave her 1 ml of UCART19 intravenously. Several weeks passed before doctors saw an immune response, in Layla's case in the form of a rash, which meant the treatment was working. "As this was the first time that the treatment had been used, we didn't know if or when it would work and so we were over the moon when it did," said Dr. Paul Veys, director of bone marrow transplants at Great Ormond Street Hospital and Layla's lead doctor. "Her leukemia was so aggressive that such a response is almost a miracle."

The company developing UCART19, Cellectis, said in a press release it would accelerate its clinical development after the success with Layla. Doctors caution that, in addition to further tests with more human patients, a long-term view of Layla's health will also help show how effective UCART19 is, especially considering her history of relapse. An account of Layla's case is published in Nature.

Gene-edited immune cells treat 1-year-old's 'incurable' leukemia

See also:

Study: Gut Bacteria May Improve Cancer Drugs' Effectiveness
November 06, 2015 - There are hundreds of trillions of microscopic, single-celled microbes in your gut, approximately 10 times the number of cells in your entire body. Most of them benefit us in some way. Entire scientific endeavors are now devoted to trying to figure what these so-called microbiota do.

The latest study, reported in the journal Science, strongly suggests that some of them can help fight cancer. In studies of mice, oncologist Tom Gajewsky and colleagues at the University of Chicago found that microbiota in the guts of certain mice produced a strong immune response against melanoma, a lethal skin cancer. When the mice were given the chemotherapy drug PD-L1, their tumors shrank significantly and almost completely went away. “We now have patients who have complete elimination of their tumor and, you know, are quite stable now for years," Gajewsky said. "That’s a small minority of patients. Now, if we could figure out all of the tricks to improve that immune response, maybe we can expand the number of patients who get this good immune response against their tumor.”

Researchers first noticed that mice obtained from one lab had a strong immune response against small melanoma tumors. Mice from another laboratory had a weaker anti-tumor response. But when the mice were put together, researchers saw tumor reduction in both groups. The researchers believed that living together transferred some beneficial gut microbiota to the rodents that didn’t do well when given PD-L1. Investigators transferred fecal samples from the mice that had strong immune responses to the poor responders. A short time later, they saw significantly slower tumor growth in both groups of mice. One family of gut bacterium, called Bifidobacterium, appeared to be especially beneficial.

Bifidobacterium worked as well as PD-L1, and when used together, Gajewski said, they could potentially produce a cure for certain cancers, including lung and head and neck cancers. The antibody drugs are extremely expensive, but given with a dose of gut microbiota, Gajewski said, the treatment antibodies could become more widely accessible. “And maybe more exportable to developing countries, as you think forward," he said. "Some of these expensive therapies, you might imagine, are not going to be available for a while in more developing countries, and something like a probiotic could be cheap and easy.” Some microbiota, also called probiotics, are already available on the market. But Gajewsky cautioned against taking them at this point because some might weaken the immune system, promoting cancer or causing anti-tumor drugs to be less effective.

Study: Gut Bacteria May Improve Cancer Drugs' Effectiveness

 

[waltky]

New blood cancer therapy offers hope for leukemia patients...

Researchers Unveil Blood Cancer Therapy with 'Exciting' Results
February 16, 2016 - An experimental therapy that harnesses the power of the immune system is showing remarkable success in the fight against some of the mostly deadly blood cancers.

The work, headed up by Stanley Riddell, a researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in the U.S. state of Washington, involves engineering the patient's immune system T-cells and has shown considerable promise in small clinical trials. In one study of 35 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or ALL, 94 percent experienced a complete remission. Fifty to 80 percent of patients with other blood cancers, including non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, also saw a reduction in symptoms. "So, this is encouraging because these are all patients who have failed all conventional therapies, including many kinds of bone marrow and stem cell transplants,” Riddell said. “So these patients really do not have any other treatment options that are likely to put them into remission. So, getting these very high rates of remission is obviously very exciting for us." Immune system T-cells, which usually fight invading viruses and bacteria, can also mount a response to cancer, but they are soon overwhelmed by the disease.

Chemotherapy medicine is readied for a cancer patient at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland​

Tagging T-cells

The work by Hutchinson researchers enhances this natural cancer-fighting ability. Riddell and his colleagues tagged patients' T-cells with cancer-specific receptor molecules that recognize and attack malignant cells. In this case, the T-cells were targeted at a series of blood cancers caused by a malfunction of B-cells, another immune system cell. Once the T-cells were modified, Riddell said, they were infused back into the patient, where they multiplied and continued to fight cancer. "So, that's the one interesting thing about this. It doesn't require repeated treatments or repetitive cycles of chemotherapy,” Riddell said. “That's what I think in the future may be most important for patients — that it's a single treatment instead of many months of treatment."

‘Living’ cancer therapy

Manipulating the immune system has already shown promise against melanoma, a lethal form of skin cancer, and some lung cancers. But currently, immunotherapy is considered a treatment of last resort for other cancer patients.

Riddell thinks that may change.

"You know, we still have a lot of work to do to establish exactly where the place of immunotherapy would be in cancer therapy,” he said, “but there's no question now that it is becoming a very useful modality and, in some cases, is a replacement for, or just superior to, chemotherapy." Riddell and his colleagues presented details of their "living" cancer therapy, as they call it, at the recent annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Researchers Unveil Blood Cancer Therapy with 'Exciting' Results

 

[strollingbones]

they are now wanting to see how long or if the remissions are permanent....as one having cancer.....this just gives ya a lot of hope....and it does not seem to be false hope...

 

[strollingbones]

stage 4 patients given a few months to live...in total remission....aint that some shit?

 

[waltky]

stage 4 patients given a few months to live...in total remission....aint that some shit?

Granny calls dat some...

... butt-kickin' cancer treatment.

 

[aris2chat]

Now it s called a cure

Israeli Researcher Finds Cure for Leukemia. British Doctors Campaign to Expel Israeli Physicians From World Body... http://fb.me/3CLGbxqI7