The National Cancer Institute recently announced that it will be funding a five-year, $10.7 million grant for research into how chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells can be used to fight solid tumors in mesothelioma and lung cancer patients. The funding will be provided to the Translational Center of Excellence for Lung Cancer Immunology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center.
“CAR-T cells have revolutionized the treatment of leukemia and lymphoma, so our goal is to see if we can translate that success to mesothelioma,” said lead researcher Steven M. Albelda, MD, the William Maul Measey Professor of Medicine at Penn, a member of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at the Abramson Cancer Center, and a past Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation grant recipient.
CAR-T cells have been described as “living drugs” that use a patient’s immune system against a tumor. The immunotherapy involves collecting a patient’s T cells, genetically engineering them to recognize a target present in the tumor — then introducing those reengineered T cells to attack the tumor.
“One of the issues with using CAR-T cells is that they only attack other cells with a target on them and not all tumor cells have targets. We are hoping to generate what is called the bystander effect so that the CAR-T cells attack those cells without a target,” said Dr. Albelda.
The grant funds three highly integrated projects that focus on exploring the ability of CAR-T cells to stimulate other immune cells and to target the structuring that supports a tumor. The researchers will also be exploring how to improve the safety and success of CAR-T cells and will be analyzing patient samples to maximize the effect.
This research is similar to a clinical trial being run by Prasad Adusumilli, MD, FACS — another Meso Foundation grant recipient — at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. In a preliminary report, Dr. Adusumilli found that the mesothelin-targeted CAR-T cell therapy combined with PD1 agents showed to be safe and effective in certain patients.
“Between the two groups, I hope we can figure out a way to get these CAR-T cells to work — either by themselves or in combination with checkpoint inhibitors — so we can translate the paradigm-shifting success in leukemia and lymphoma to mesothelioma,” said Dr. Albelda.
