Avera Becomes a Leader in Promising Cancer Therapy
Avera Health is emerging as a regional leader in cellular therapy, a growing area of research that shows promise in eliminating many types of cancer.
Avera Cancer Institute has been performing cellular therapy and cellular therapy clinical trials and continues to add newer therapies for patients. This is in addition to CAR T-cell cellular therapy to treat certain types of cancers, which Avera added following approval by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
The growth is thanks to Avera’s experienced bone marrow transplant team, which works in concert with oncology and hematology physicians during the treatment process.
Cellular therapy is a type of immunotherapy that uses a patient’s cells to find and fight cancer cells.
Avera’s Growing Program
To offer cellular therapy, health systems need an experienced bone marrow transplant team to extract the patient’s cells to be sent to a lab. Avera is able to do this due to its accreditation with FACT (Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapies). The lab then works to increase the body’s ability to pinpoint and find the cancer cells specific to the patient. This is done in a number of ways.
A clinical trial for patients with head and neck cancer that uses tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy is the newest clinical trial offered at Avera. This phase 2 trial is also being tested for cervical, lung and metastatic melanoma.
This therapy uses T cells that are already being created in the body. The problem is there aren’t always enough of them to effectively kill the cancer cells. In this clinical trial the specific T cells that can kill head and neck cancer are harvested and then multiplied in large amounts before being infused back into the body. The local physician leading this trial is Ben Solomon, MD.
Avera was among the first health systems to offer CAR T-cell therapy in the U.S. for patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. The American Society of Clinical Oncology named the CAR T-cell therapy “Advance of the Year” in 2018.
With this treatment T cells are extracted from the patient and then genetically engineered to include proteins called chimeric antigen receptors, which help find and kill cancer cells. The cells are then infused back into the body. More and more indications are available now, including multiple myeloma.
“CAR T-cell is a breakthrough therapy that has tremendous potential and we are currently involved in a CAR T-cell clinical trial,” said Waqas Jehangir, MD, hematologist. “CAR T-cell represents another tool in our toolkit that we can offer to patients with certain diagnoses. The numbers are telling us that this therapy has a high response rate and a high remission rate in patients who had no other options. In the future, CAR T-cell could likely be delivered sooner in the disease process and hopefully, with more types of cancers,” he said. “This is an amazing time to be involved in cancer care and we look forward to the promise of future scientific discovery.”
Future Growth
More advancements are expected to come as cellular therapy research continues to expand and the FDA approves more therapies. In late 2019, there were more than 1,100 cancer cellular therapy trials in various stages of development with CAR T-cell projects at the forefront. These clinical trials span many different types of cancer ranging from lung and colon cancers to cervical and melanoma.
In coming years, cellular therapies like CAR T-cell, NK cell and TILs, are expected to continue to expand and also be paired with traditional therapies. Since Avera already has the expertise and infrastructure to do the treatments, it will be more likely to get early access to trials and have the ability to add treatments for widespread use after approval by the FDA.
One challenge for Avera and other health systems is the cost of offering novel treatments that may or may not be covered by insurance.
If you’re interested in learning if a clinical trial is an option for your cancer treatment ask your doctor. Learn more about Cancer Research at Avera.
