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Immunology & Immunotherapy First, Made-in-Canada CAR-T Cell Therapy Shows Promise in Clinical Trial CAR-T cell therapy offers a fighting chance to patients with cancer in Canada.
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ore than a dozen people with cancer who had exhausted all treatments are alive and cancer-free thanks to a pioneering Canadian clinical trial of a highly personalized immunotherapy. Patients in the clinical trial at The Ottawa Hospital and BC Cancer had their T cells removed and genetically engineered to enhance their cancer-killing ability. The supercharged immune cells, called CAR-T cells, were then infused back into the same patient. Health Canada has approved several commercial CAR-T therapies, but access is restricted to
people with just a few kinds of leukemia and lymphoma and in certain age ranges. Canadian-Led Immunotherapies in Cancer-01 (CLIC-01) is the first trial to manufacture CAR-T therapy in Canada. “Without this trial, I don’t think any of these patients would be alive today, so we’re very encouraged by these results,” says Dr. Natasha Kekre, a scientist and hematologist at The Ottawa Hospital, associate professor at the University of Ottawa, and principal investigator of CLIC-01. “So far, we’re seeing an average progression-free survival of six months, which is very good in this patient population.” Participant Camille Leahy says, “I feel better than I’ve felt in a very long time. Being able to drive again and take my daughter to her
OICR Fuels Innovative Research on Activating Our Immune System against Cancer OICR is dedicated to discovering and accelerating innovative cancer treatments for patients. Abigail Cukier
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fter 30 years in academia, pharma, and biotech researching the relationship between cancer and the immune system, Dr. Laszlo Radvanyi says oncology is poised to enter a new era of better leveraging our immune system against cancer. Although decades of research have resulted in a promising new kind of treatment called immunotherapy, these therapies have been aimed mostly at treating late-stage, highly metastatic cancer patients. However, new research shows that harnessing the immune system in earlier stages of cancer could be more effective.
“It has become evident that early cancer lesions that can progress to invasive cancer shape the quality and direction of the immune response much earlier in the disease process than initially thought,” says Dr. Radvanyi. “This can ‘hard wire’ an immune response very early on that can either inhibit or promote tumour progression.” Dr. Radvanyi is President and Scientific Director of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), which works with partners to accelerate the development of cancer research discoveries and propel them from the lab to the clinic. OICR specializes in earlier stages of cancer where projects focus on early tumour-immune interactions and develop ways to activate the immune system against cancer. One exciting new OICR clinical program is its
softball games means the world to me. Even if the cancer comes back, this has given me precious time, and I know the research will help many others. It has given me a fighting chance.” “Canadian patients deserve access to the best cancer treatments in the world, and we need Canadian research to make this happen,” says Dr. Kekre. The trial is supported by BioCanRx, BC Cancer, the BC Cancer Foundation, The Ottawa Hospital Foundation, the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation, and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada.
Visit biocanrx.com for more information.
This article was sponsored by BioCanRx.
Window-of-Opportunity (WOO) Network, which recently launched two new clinical trials studying immunotherapies. WOO trials analyze how new agents activate the anti-cancer immune response before surgery after primary diagnosis in a comprehensive way that informs the development of earlier interventions to cure cancer or stop further spread. These trials can help develop more effective treatment options for future generations of cancer patients, promising to eradicate cancer at an earlier stage before the cancer spreads and becomes resistant to a cure. “Studying cancers before surgery may provide insights into new ways to identify cancer, measure how cancer cells respond to treatment, and understand how a new therapy works,” says Dr. Radvanyi. Visit oicr.on.ca to learn more about this and other research programs at OICR.
This article was sponsored by OICR.
Publisher: Meredith Burt Business Development Manager: Chelsea Siemon Country Manager: Nina Theodorlis Content & Production Manager: Raymond Fan Designer: Kylie Armishaw Lead Editor: Karthik Talwar All images are from Getty Images unless otherwise credited. This section was created by Mediaplanet and did not involve Maclean’s Magazine or its editorial departments. Send all inquiries to ca.editorial@mediaplanet.com.