The father of CAR-T new research! CAR-T cell therapy can eliminate residual cancer cells after solid tumors and prevent cancer recurrence

 01 

When solid tumor cancer has not spread, surgery can cure it
.
However, it is often difficult for surgeons to tell the difference between the end of the tumor and the beginning of healthy tissue
.
Therefore, for many cancers, postoperative recurrence due to a small number of residual tumor cells is common
.
One way to solve this problem is to apply anti-tumor treatments to the margins of the remaining tissue immediately after tumor removal to kill any remaining tumor cells
.
In this study, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania tested this approach
using CAR-T cells.

CAR-T cells are powerful immune cells designed to target specific proteins
.
All CAR-T therapies approved for clinical use target proteins
found on cancer cells.
Typically, T cells are extracted from a patient's blood, engineered in a lab, and then placed back into the patient's body to function as
a "living drug.
"

Until now, solid tumors have been more difficult targets for CAR-T therapy due to tumor volume and tumor anti-immune
defenses.
A study last year showed that CAR-T cells could be used to remove cancer cells left after surgery in a mouse model of brain cancer
.
In the new study, June and colleagues tried the same approach to treat two other hard-to-cure solid tumors: triple-negative breast cancer (none of the three major breast cancer markers) and ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas (the most common type of pancreatic cancer).

The researchers designed CAR-T cells to target the protein mesothelin, a surface marker for both tumor cells in the experiment
.
Subsequently, the researchers used a fibrin gel containing CAR-T cells for wounds after surgical removal of
tumors.
Of the 20 mice, 19 had residual tumor tissue that disappeared rapidly and showed no wound healing complications or other significant side effects
during the remaining observation period.
In the absence of the use of CAR-T cells and fibrin gel, residual tumor tissue grew and the mice died
in about 7 weeks.

CAR-T cells persist in huMeso-KI-NSG mice and respond to tumors

Further experiments showed that car-T cells targeting mesothelin have the potential to
attack healthy cells tagged with this protein after intravenous injection.
Topical injections of CAR-T cells are less
toxic than direct injection into the bloodstream.

Research significance

 02 

Overall, CAR-T cells can be used effectively and safely for surgically adjuvant treatment
of solid tumors that cannot be completely removed.
In this case, the use of fibrin glue-based vectors may be an effective, translatable tool to maximize the distribution and anti-tumor efficacy of CAR-T cells at the site of tumor resection
.

June said the approach could also be extended to cell therapies and anti-cancer drugs in addition to CAR-T cells, which is expected to further improve the effectiveness of
anti-tumors.

Resources:

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Note: This article is intended to introduce the progress of medical research and cannot be used as a reference
for treatment options.
If you need health guidance, please go to a regular hospital
.

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