In a study recently published in Nature Medicine, researchers report that a woman who was treated with CAR-T as a child remains in remission 18 years later, the longest duration of such therapy described to date.
The phase 1 clinical trial for a CAR-T cell therapy developed at the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s Hospital and Houston Methodist Hospital enrolled children between 2004 and 2009. Nineteen children with relapsed or refractory neuroblastoma, a nerve cell tumor that can have a poor prognosis, were treated with CAR-T cells engineered to target GD2, an antigen highly expressed on the surface of neuroblastoma cells.
Out of 11 patients with active disease at the time of treatment, two have sustained complete responses, one of those for more than 18 years. Of eight patients with no evidence of active disease at the time of treatment, five were disease free at their last follow-up between 10-15 years after infusion.
The patient who achieved more than 18 years of complete remission after the infusion never required any other cancer treatment.
Despite using first-generation vectors that are no longer employed, the landmark trial demonstrates the feasibility and long-term outcomes of cell therapy to treat solid tumors.
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