Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Novel Therapy Using Patient's Own Immune Cells Eradicates Advanced, Incurable Breast Cancer In Woman
The Washington Post: Researchers Use Immune-Cell ‘Army’ To Battle Another Tough Cancer
A Florida woman diagnosed with advanced breast cancer, generally considered incurable, is free of the disease two-and-a-half years after a novel therapy used her own immune cells to target her tumors, researchers said Monday. Striking recoveries were reported earlier for a patient with deadly liver cancer and another with advanced colon cancer. The three patients were treated by a team at the National Cancer Institute led by Steven Rosenberg, an immunotherapy pioneer who is chief of the surgery branch. For each patient, the team sequenced the genomes of their tumors to find mutations, then tested immune cells extracted from the cancers to identify which ones might recognize the defects. Those cells were expanded by the billions in the laboratory, then infused back into the patients, where they attacked the tumors. (McGinley, 6/4)
Los Angeles Times: 'I Have Definitely Hit The Jackpot.' Advanced Breast Cancer Disappears After New Immunotherapy
The patient’s “complete durable cancer regression” followed a single infusion of her own immune cells, which were painstakingly chosen for their ability to recognize and fight her tumors — then expanded into an army of 82 billion identical cells. More than three years later, the patient, Judy Perkins, is not only alive, but seemingly cancer-free, according to a report published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine.“I have definitely hit the jackpot,” said Perkins, a retired engineer from Port St. Lucie, Fla. In the fast-moving world of cancer research, the new report is being hailed as a development that could open a broad new front in cancer immunotherapy. (Healy, 6/4)
The Wall Street Journal: Novel Immunotherapy Method Led To Complete Regression Of Breast Cancer In Patient
Dr. Rosenberg, who has investigated for three decades how the immune system can be employed to fight cancer, said he is hopeful this approach “holds the best opportunities for finding effective immunotherapies for patients with the solid tumors that last year caused over 500,000 deaths in this country.” “This research has promise for many malignancies,” said Cleveland Clinic medical oncologist Megan Kruse. “We rarely see such deep and durable responses with conventional therapies and we have not seen such dramatic responses with other immunotherapies in breast cancer to date.” (Burton, 6/4)
NPR: Breast Cancer Treatment With T Cells Eradicates Advanced Disease In Patient
But Rosenberg and others caution that the approach doesn't work for everyone. In fact, it failed for two other breast cancer patients. Many more patients will have to be treated — and followed for much longer — to fully evaluate the treatment's effectiveness, the scientists say. Still, the treatment has helped seven of 45 patients with a variety of cancers, Rosenberg says. That's a response rate of about 15 percent, and included patients with advanced cases of colon cancer, liver cancer and cervical cancer. (Stein, 6/4)
