Fine-Tuning CAR T-cell Immunotherapy to Benefit More Kids

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. At Seattle Children’s, we don’t just have a vision of curing cancer – we have a plan. Our researchers are spearheading a treatment, called immunotherapy, that uses the body’s immune system to eliminate cancer, without chemotherapy, radiation or their devastating effects.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapy, which reprograms a child’s white blood cells so they can seek out and destroy cancer cells, is making a difference in children’s lives. Currently, Seattle Children’s has multiple trials open that could benefit children and young adults with relapsed or refractory cancers. In October 2019, Seattle Children’s opened a new pediatric research facility, Building Cure, to accelerate discoveries such as immunotherapy.

Seattle Children’s researchers are continuing to realize the promise of CAR T-cell immunotherapy and improve outcomes in difficult to treat pediatric cancers. They are applying knowledge gained from ongoing clinical trials to study effects on the youngest patients, develop new interventions to prevent side effects and boost T-cell persistence, and to better understand resistance to therapy.

Research recently published in major scientific journals and presented at the 2019 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting contributes new insight guiding the evolution of the experimental therapy. You can read summaries of their findings On the Pulse.