[00:00.00]A new way to fight an extremely aggressive kind of brain tumor is showing promise in two experiments with a small number of patients.
[00:14.30]For the experiments, scientists took patients' own immune cells and turned them into "living drugs" that can find and attack the tumor, called glioblastoma.
[00:31.28]Researchers have reported that, in early tests, the immune cells have made the tumors temporarily smaller.
[00:42.36]The treatment is called CAR-T therapy.
[00:46.97]Doctors already use the treatment to fight blood-related cancers like leukemia.
[00:55.39]But researchers have struggled to make CAR-T therapy work for solid tumors.
[01:04.68]Now, separate teams at both Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania are developing next-generation CAR-T therapy treatments.
[01:22.14]They are designed to get past some of glioblastoma's defenses.
[01:28.86]University of Pennsylvania's Dr. Stephen Bagley led one of the studies.
[01:37.62]He warned, "It's very early days."
[01:41.70]But he added, "We're optimistic that we've got something to build on here..."
[01:48.24]Glioblastoma is the brain cancer that killed U.S. President Joe Biden's son Beau Biden.
[01:58.78]It also took the life of longtime Arizona Senator John McCain.
[02:06.12]Glioblastoma is fast-growing and hard to treat.
[02:12.08]Patients usually live 12 to 18 months after diagnosis.
[02:18.84]Even after many years of research, there are few options if the cancer returns after treatments.
[02:28.15]A kind of cell in the immune system called T cells fight disease, but cancer has ways to hide.
[02:38.06]With CAR-T therapy, doctors genetically change a patient's own T cells so they can better find different cancer cells.
[02:50.19]But solid tumors like glioblastoma have an additional difficulty.
[02:57.37]They contain mixtures of cancer cells with different mutations.
[03:03.83]Targeting just one kind still means the other kinds can keep growing.
[03:11.49]The teams at Massachusetts General Hospital and University of Pennsylvania each developed a therapy with two different methods.
[03:23.42]They tried them in patients whose tumors returned after usual treatment.
[03:30.69]At Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Marcela Maus and her team combined CAR-T with T-cell engaging antibody molecules.
[03:44.96]T-cell engaging antibody molecules are molecules that can attract nearby, regular T cells to join in the cancer attack.
[03:58.41]The result, called CAR-TEAM, targets a protein called EGFR.
[04:05.43]EGFR is found in most glioblastomas but not in normal brain tissue.
[04:14.58]The University of Pennsylvania's method was to create a two-target CAR-T therapy.
[04:22.51]It hunts for both the EGFR protein plus a second protein found in many glioblastomas.
[04:33.89]Both teams administered the treatment through a medical device called a catheter into the fluid that surrounds the brain.
[04:45.03]Massachusetts General Hospital tested three patients with its CAR-TEAM therapy.
[04:52.35]Brain imagining a day or two later showed their tumors were quickly becoming smaller.
[05:00.37]The researchers reported their findings in the publication the New England Journal of Medicine.
[05:09.55]Maus said, "None of us could really believe it."
[05:14.46]Two of the patients' tumors began to regrow soon.
[05:19.80]A second treatment given to one of them did not work.
[05:25.63]But one patient's response to the experimental treatment lasted more than six months.
[05:34.26]University of Pennsylvania researchers reported their findings in the publication Nature Medicine.
[05:43.35]They similarly found that in the first six patients given its therapy tumors got smaller.
[05:54.00]While some came back quickly, Bagley said one patient treated last August still has not had any regrowth.
[06:04.87]For both teams, the goal is to see longer-lasting results.
[06:11.49]Bagley said, "None of this is going to matter if it doesn't last."
[06:18.07]I'm Gregory Stachel.
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Words in This Story
tumor - n. a mass of cells growing in or on a part of the body where they should not, usually causing medical problems
immune system - n. the system in your body that produces substances to help it fight against infection and disease
therapy - n. the treatment of a physical problem or an illness
optimistic - adj. expecting good things to happen or something to be successful; showing this feeling
diagnosis - n. the act of discovering or identifying the exact cause of an illness or a problem
mutation - n. a process in which the genetic material of a person, a plant or an animal changes in structure when it is passed on to children, causing different physical characteristics to develop; a change of this kind
engage - v. to start fighting against (an opponent)
attract - v. to cause (someone or something) to go to or move to or toward a place
response - v. something that is done as a reaction to something else
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