The José Carreras Leukaemia Foundation and the Hospital de Sant Pau presented today at a press conference the campaign “The factory of unstoppable cells”, a clinical trial of immunotherapy CAR-T to offer an opportunity to lymphoma patients who no longer have other therapeutic possibilities available due to the resistance of their diseases to the usual treatments. The project, unique in the world for its characteristics, will be developed entirely in the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona during 2019.
It is a clinical trial especially aimed at patients with Hodgkin’s lymphoma or T lymphomas such as anaplastic large cell lymphoma, the cells of which have receptors called CD30. The meeting was attended by Dr. Jordi Sierra, head of the Haematology Service at the Hospital de Sant Pau; Dr. Javier Briones, haematologist at the Hospital de Sant Pau, clinical researcher in the area of associated immunotherapy at the José Carreras Leukemia Research Institute and head of the Cellular Immunotherapy and Gene Therapy Group at the Sant Pau Research Institute; Dr. Javier Briones, haematologist at the Hospital de Sant Pau, clinical researcher in the area of associated immunotherapy at the José Carreras Research Institute for Leukemia and head of the Cellular Immunotherapy and Gene Therapy Group at the Sant Pau Research Institute; Dr. Javier Briones, haematologist at the Hospital de Sant Pau, clinical researcher in the area of associated immunotherapy at the José Carreras Research Institute for Leukemia and head of the Cellular Immunotherapy and Gene Therapy Group at the Sant Pau Research Institute. Manel Esteller, director of the José Carreras Leukemia Research Institute, Dr. Evarist Feliu, vice-president of the José Carreras Leukemia Foundation and Mireia Agudo, non-Hogdkin’s lymphoma patient.
“Scientific research is the cornerstone to achieve the definitive cure of all patients. Investment in improving current treatments and the quality of life of patients is our raison d’être. To be able to offer a hope like this clinical trial is an enormous satisfaction for the José Carreras Foundation and for all of us who participate”, explains Dr. Manel Esteller, director of the José Carreras Leukemia Research Institute.
lymphomas
Every year 7,500 people are diagnosed with lymphoma in Spain. It is the most frequent blood cancer. It is a neoplasm of the lymphatic system, which mainly contributes to forming and activating the body’s defences. Lymphomas are classified into two main groups: Hodgkin’s lymphoma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas.
Most of these patients recover after undergoing intensive cycles of chemotherapy and often a bone marrow transplant. However, many patients will relapse and there are currently no more therapeutic possibilities to offer them.
The clinical trial
This trial is based on selecting a type of T lymphocytes called memory T lymphocytes. They are small but extremely effective cells of the body. They are generated after a primary infection and are in charge of mediating the defence of the organism in successive infections of the same pathogen. They remember it. In addition, they have a powerful cytotoxic effect, the quality of being toxic against others that are altered. And they live many years in our body. “We will select these T lymphocytes from the patient’s own memory and equip them with a” weapon “which, every time it detects one of these CD30 antigens, which express the tumour cells of the lymphoma, eliminates it. Thus, in perpetuity, in the patient’s body there would remain a “detector and eliminator” of any lymphoma cell that reappeared. In short, it is the genetic modification of the patient’s own T lymphocytes so that these attack cancer cells”, explains Dr. Javier Briones, the clinical head of the project.
“There are only 2 clinical trials of this type in the whole world, in the United States and China, with previous positive results, although it has only been possible to treat a little more than 30 patients. “The factory of unstoppable cells” will be the first clinical trial of CAR-T anti-CD30 immunotherapy for T lymphomas and Hodgkin’s lymphoma in Spain and Europe and the first to select T lymphocytes by memory”, confirms Dr. Jordi Sierra, head of the Hospital’s Haematology Department.
The aim of the Sant Pau Hospital and the José Carreras Foundation is to begin Phase I of this trial in 2019 with 10 patients refractory to the treatments. “Before I thought about winning the war but, after many relapses, I only think about winning each battle. As long as they offer me opportunities, I don’t give up,” says Mireia Agudo, a non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma patient.
Currently, the José Carreras Foundation has already been able to reach three quarters of the minimum funds needed to carry out the project. All this in a collaborative campaign in which more than 11,000 people have participated.
+ info a www.imparables.org
