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时间:2019-04-11 18:15:24

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Treatment Helps Body’s Natural Defenses Fight Cancer

A treatment that helps the human body fight blood cancer is showing early signs of promise against some solid tumors.

The treatment strengthens the person’s natural defenses against disease. Its success against tumors suggests this method might be extended to more common cancers in the future.

The treatment is called CAR-T therapy. It involves making genetic2 changes to some of a patient’s own cells to help them recognize and attack cancer.

Richard Carlstrand of Long Key, Florida, had the therapy more than a year ago for mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining3 of the lungs.

“We were going into unknown territories” to try this, he told The Associated Press. But now he shows no sign of cancer and “I couldn’t be happier,” Carlstrand said.

Experts discussed results of his and other cases at an American Association for Cancer Research conference last month in Atlanta, Georgia.

The United States Food and Drug Administration approved the first two CAR-T therapies in 2017 for some forms of leukemia and lymphomas. Leukemia affects the blood and bone marrow4. Lymphoma is cancer that starts in infection-fighting cells of the body’s immune system.

Researchers begin the treatment by altering immune system cells in a laboratory. They return the cells to the patient through an intravenous drip. This puts the cells right where the cancer is — in the blood.

But that method does not work well if the cells have to travel far through the bloodstream to get to tumors in the lung, breast or other places.

Prasad Adusumilli is a doctor with the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He notes that in those cases not enough of the cells may make it into the cancer to have an effect.

“Solid tumors are notorious for not letting the immune cells enter,” Adusumilli said.

A bigger worry is that the proteins on solid tumor1 cells that these therapies target are also found on normal cells at lower levels. So the treatment also might harm them.

Adusumilli helped design a new CAR-T therapy to try to avoid these problems and tested it on 19 patients with mesothelioma. He also tested it on one patient with lung cancer and another with breast cancer. In these patients, the cancer had spread to the lining of their upper body. About 150,000 patients in the United States face this situation every year.

The altered cells were injected directly into the upper body where the tumors were. A genetic safety control was added so medicine could be given to destroy the cells if they caused harm.

After the therapy, doctors were able to perform a medical operation on the patient, who also was given radiation treatments. Twenty months later that person is doing well, with no other treatments planned. Fifteen other patients were well enough to start on a drug that improves the immune system in a different way.

Eleven of the 15 have been studied long enough to report results. Two had signs of cancer disappear for about a year, although one had the cancer return later. Six saw their tumors shrink. In three others, the cancer worsened.

There were no severe side effects; however, some patients had temporarily low blood counts and reported feeling tired.

Money from the U.S. federal government and private groups paid for the work. A larger study is planned. The Sloan Kettering Cancer Center has given Atara Biotherapeutics permission to use the treatment. The center may get payments from the company, as may Adusumilli.

A second study tested a different CAR-T therapy in 10 children and adults. All 10 subjects had advanced sarcomas — cancers that first appear in soft tissues or bones. Unlike other CAR-Ts that are usually given just once, this one was given more than once. In fact, one patient received the treatment 15 times since there were signs it was helping5.

Shoba Navai is a doctor with the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. She said that in her study, researchers collected a large amount of the CAR-T cells from patients’ blood and then froze them. They would then return the cells to the patients intravenously, as needed.

Two of the 10 patients had all signs of cancer disappear, one for 17 months and the other for nearly three years. The disease appeared to be under control in two other patients. The conditions of five others worsened.

Side effects were similar to the other study. The therapy seems safe “and we have early signs that this treatment approach may help,” Navai said.

Several organizations and non-profit groups paid for the work.

“These studies are showing there may be a path forward in solid tumors” with CAR-T therapies, said Louis Weiner. He directs the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and was one of the conference leaders. CAR-T may hold promise for some cancers of the stomach, breast, lung and other areas, he said.

However, cost is a big issue. Current CAR-T therapies cost around $400,000, but can be made for far less than that in research centers. Doctors say they hope the cost will come down as more treatments come on the market and find their way to wider use.

I’m Alice Bryant.

And I’m Pete Musto.

Words in This Story

tumor(s) – n. a mass of tissue found in or on the body that is made up of abnormal cells

immune system – n. the system that protects your body from diseases and infections

alter(ing) – v. to change something

intravenous – adj. entering the body through a vein6

bloodstream – n. the flow of blood that moves through the heart and body

notorious – adj. well-known or famous especially for something bad

blood count(s) – n. the number of cells in someone's blood

approach – n. a way of doing or thinking about something

 

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1 tumor fKxzm     
n.(肿)瘤,肿块(英)tumour
参考例句:
  • He was died of a malignant tumor.他死于恶性肿瘤。
  • The surgeons irradiated the tumor.外科医生用X射线照射那个肿瘤。
2 genetic PgIxp     
adj.遗传的,遗传学的
参考例句:
  • It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
  • Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。
3 lining kpgzTO     
n.衬里,衬料
参考例句:
  • The lining of my coat is torn.我的外套衬里破了。
  • Moss makes an attractive lining to wire baskets.用苔藓垫在铁丝篮里很漂亮。
4 marrow M2myE     
n.骨髓;精华;活力
参考例句:
  • It was so cold that he felt frozen to the marrow. 天气太冷了,他感到寒冷刺骨。
  • He was tired to the marrow of his bones.他真是累得筋疲力尽了。
5 helping 2rGzDc     
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
参考例句:
  • The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
  • By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
6 vein fi9w0     
n.血管,静脉;叶脉,纹理;情绪;vt.使成脉络
参考例句:
  • The girl is not in the vein for singing today.那女孩今天没有心情唱歌。
  • The doctor injects glucose into the patient's vein.医生把葡萄糖注射入病人的静脉。

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