SEATTLE, April 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Seattle Children's
announced today that 20 of 22 patients treated thus far in a
clinical trial using genetically reprogrammed T cells to treat
relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) have achieved complete
remission, confirmed by highly sensitive tests designed to detect
minute amounts of cancer cells. The 20 patients who have achieved
complete remission included children with very high tumor burdens
as well as children who were diagnosed with ALL as infants.
"These results are extremely encouraging," said Dr. Mike Jensen,
director of Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer Research at
Seattle Children's Research Institute, who presented the results
this morning at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
Annual Meeting 2015 in Philadelphia. "This trial is helping us
understand how the therapy works, which will hopefully lead to it
working for all forms of pediatric cancer."
The trial, known as Pediatric Leukemia Adoptive Therapy-02
(PLAT-02), includes patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia who
have relapsed after a bone marrow transplant, or who are unable to
get into remission to proceed with a bone marrow transplant, and
typically have only a 10% to 20% chance of survival with standard
treatment. Using immunotherapy, which reprograms the body's T cells
to hunt down and destroy cancer cells, researchers have seen a 91%
complete remission rate.
"Some of our earliest treated patients are now a year
post-therapy and are still in remission," said Seattle Children's
oncologist, Dr. Rebecca Gardner, who is the lead investigator for
the trial. "They've remained in remission without further
chemotherapy or other treatments. This gives us hope that,
eventually, we'll be able to use this therapy in patients who are
newly diagnosed, reducing the need for toxic therapies and bone
marrow transplants."
In the first phase of the trial, Gardner treated 22 patients
with relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia using cancer
immunotherapy. This phase was designed to demonstrate the safety of
cancer immunotherapy as a treatment for leukemia and to determine
the optimal dose of engineered T cells to administer to patients.
Of the 22 patients treated, 20 responded to the treatment and
achieved complete remission. Gardner expects to treat another 8-10
patients before completing the first phase of the trial in about 12
weeks.
The second phase of the trial, which is expected to begin later
this year, will allow even more patients to be treated with what
researchers determine is the optimal dose of reengineered T
cells.
Juno Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: JUNO) has entered into a
licensing arrangement with respect to Seattle Children's Research
Institute's PLAT-02 trial, which is designated as JCAR017 by
Juno.
For more information on immunotherapy research trials at Seattle
Children's, please call (206) 987-2106 or email
immunotherapy@seattlechildrens.org.
About Seattle Children's
Three simple words define Seattle Children's Hospital,
Foundation and Research Institute – Hope. Care. Cure. Together, the
three deliver superior patient care, advance new discoveries and
treatments through pediatric research, and serve as the pediatric
and adolescent academic medical referral center for Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho – the largest region of any children's
hospital in the country.
Consistently ranked as one of the best children's hospitals in
the country by U.S. News & World Report, Seattle Children's
Hospital specializes in meeting the unique physical, emotional and
developmental needs of children from infancy through young
adulthood. For more than 100 years, the hospital has been dedicated
to providing top-quality care to every child in who needs it,
regardless of the family's ability to pay.
Seattle Children's Hospital and Research Foundation gathers
community support and raises funds for Seattle Children's Hospital
and Seattle Children's Research Institute.
Located in downtown Seattle's
biotech corridor, Seattle Children's Research Institute is pushing
the boundaries of medical research to find cures for pediatric
diseases and improve outcomes for children all over the world.
Internationally recognized investigators and staff at the research
institute are advancing new discoveries in cancer, genetics,
immunology, pathology, infectious disease, injury prevention and
bioethics, among others.
For more information, visit seattlechildrens.org or follow us on
Twitter or Facebook.
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SOURCE Seattle Children’s