Extended Remission for Leukemia Patients

Every year in the United States about 2,400 people older than 20 are affected by acute lymphoblastic leukemia with only 40% cure rate and around 1,170 adults who die from it whereas 3,600 people under the age of 20 get affected by acute lymphoblastic leukemia with 80% cure rate and 270 who will die from it. Dr. Stephan A. Grupp, Dr. Carl H. June, and other researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have found an experimental treatment which uses patients’ own T-cells. T-cells are extracted then genetically engineered using a disabled virus to slip new genetic material into the cells. This genetic material reprograms the T-cells to identify and kill any cell that carries a specific protein on its surface. Once that happens the cells are dripped back into the patient. These cells are also encoded to multiply so they can produce as many as 10,000 or more cancer-killing cells.

The specific protein that is searched for is CD19 which is found on B-cells. This was chosen because the type of leukemia patents have affects the B-cells. Therefore, the T-cells are trained to destroy the B-cells. Since there is no way that cancerous B-cells can only be killed the healthy B-cells also have to be killed.

The usual treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia is stem cell transplant so some researchers believed to be on the safe side of any patient who went into remission after this T-cell treatment should also undergo stem cell transplant. Dr. June and Dr. Grupp suggested that due to the long remission the stem cell transplant might not be needed and that the T-cell treatment could hopefully replace the stem cell transplant.

Although this treatment sounds astonishing, T-cell treatment has its own side effects. T-cells churn out hormones called cytokines that can cause patients to have fevers, aches, drops in blood pressure, and trouble breathing. This is known as cytokine release syndrome. It is said that that more cancer there is to destroy the worse the syndrome.

The research trial Dr. June and Dr. Grupp did included 30 patients which 7 of the patients died who completed remission and then relapsed and 3 of the patients had the leukemia come back in B-cells that lacked the target protein which made them not vulnerable to the treatment.

Clearly this research doesn’t work for everyone but it is innovating in that in today’s world we can find cures for certain diseases and cancers. Although this is helpful for some patients this is only a research for the acute lymphoblastic leukemia and the researchers should find out why those seven patients died and come up with a method in how they can find who could be a perfect candidate for this research.  

Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/16/health/leukemia-patients-cell-therapy-childrens-hospital.html?mabReward=RI%3A17&src=rechp&WT.nav=RecEngine&module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=Health&action=keypress&region=FixedLeft&pgtype=article