Patients' chance to join global blood cancer trial

Australian blood cancer patients have the chance to join a global trial at Epworth Freemasons hospital in Melbourne.

The Phase 1 clinical trial is investigating the benefits of a more efficient way of using healthy donor cells to recognise and attack blood cancer cells.

The new investigational immunotherapy agent was first trialled at Epworth Freemasons in April 2024.

The Chimeric Antigen Receptor cell therapy (CAR-T) is readily available 'off-the-shelf' – having been modified with gene-editing tools, with many doses of the therapy made in advance so it can be immediately shipped to patients when needed.

Traditional CAR-T treatments require time-consuming manufacturing using the patient's own immune cells, which are usually sent overseas to be modified using specialised equipment not available at most hospitals.

This can take weeks, meaning many patients are unable to receive treatment because their cancer is progressing too fast, or they need additional chemotherapy to keep it at bay while they wait.

"CAR-T treatment is used in cases where chemotherapy has failed, meaning it is often the last line of defence for some sick patients," said Epworth haematologist Associate Professor Costas Yannakou, who is leading the trial.

Epworth HealthCare's Deputy Director of Cell Therapy, Dr Salvatore Fiorenza, said genetically-modified immune cells had been shown in other clinical trials and real-world studies to have activity and improve overall survival by four-fold against some relapsed blood cancers.

"This therapy is in an early-stage clinical trial in Australia, the United States, and Israel," he said.

"Results from the trial were presented last year at a medical meeting showing encouraging results for patients with B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma who do not respond or have a relapse after chemotherapy."

The trial is sponsored by California-based biotech company Caribou Biosciences, co-founded by Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna.

The CAR-T cells used in the trial are manufactured in advance, then shipped by Caribou Biosciences to a state-of-the-art, purpose-built laboratory complex that forms part of the Epworth Centre for Immunotherapies and Snowdome Laboratories.

Visit Epworth's trials hub for enrolment details.

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