Funded by the Dick Vitale Pediatric Cancer Research Fund
Many children with bone tumors cannot be cured. This is true in particular if the tumor has come back. We are interested in using the immune system to fight cancer. In our approach, we take immune cells from patients and train them in the laboratory to fight cancer. Our training methods consists of inserting a gene into immune cells that are called T-cells. Once the cells have completed training in the laboratory, they are given back to patients. We have conducted this successfully in patients, and now want to improve our approach. Out approach consists of inserting a second gene into T-cells so that the T-cells can grow better in patients after infusion. In our proposal we now want to figure out the best structure of the second gene. We will perform laboratory studies with the T-cells we have made to determine which one works best. Once we have completed these studies, we will then proceed to develop a clinical study. The goal is to have the clinical study open for treatment at the conclusion of the grant. In the clinical study we will determine the safety of T-cells and their ability to destroy tumors. While we focus here on bone tumors, our approach could be adapted to other tumors for which immunotherapies are being developed. If successful, we hope that our approach will lead to better outcomes for children, who can currently not be cured of their cancer.
