By Terri Lynn, SouthFloridaReporter.com, Managing Editor, Nov 4, 2015 – KANSAS CITY, Kan.— The latest battle against cancer is being waged at the University of Kansas Cancer Center. Doctors have begun a novel immunotherapy clinical trial enrolling the first patients in the world to receive what many doctors and researchers believe is the future of cancer treatment.
The trial turns the patient’s own body into a cancer fighting machine. T-cells taken from the patient are modified and multiplied and then given back to the patient through an infusion. The patients in the current trial suffer diffuse large B cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma … the most common type of lymphoma. CAR T-cell therapy has proven successful in fighting blood cancers and doctors believe it could be adapted to target other cancers like breast and colon.
“Think of ‘Pac Man’,” Joseph McGuirk, DO, and medical director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at The University of Kansas Cancer Center said. “The patient’s re-engineered cells are trained to chase down the cancer and destroy it.”
Patients enrolled in the trial include a 26-year-old mother of two from Atchison, Kan. and a businessman from Perth, Australia who relocated his family temporarily to Kansas City for a chance at this cancer trial.
About The University of Kansas Cancer Center
The University of Kansas Cancer Center is a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Cancer Center transforming cancer research and clinical care by linking an innovative approach to drug discovery, delivery and development to a nationally-accredited patient care program. KU Cancer Center partners with cancer research and healthcare professionals associated with the University of Kansas Medical Center and The University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kan., the University of Kansas in Lawrence, the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Wichita and Salina, and the members of the Midwest Cancer Alliance. KU Cancer Center’s NCI Consortium partners include The Stowers Institute for Medical Research and Children’s Mercy in Kansas City, Mo.
For more information on The University of Kansas Cancer Center’s research and outreach programs and award-winning patient care offered at the Richard and Annette Bloch Cancer Care Pavilion and The University of Kansas Hospital, please visit http://kucancercenter.org or call 1-800-332-6048.
Information and video source: The University of Kansas Cancer Center
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