Winship | In the News
PIONEERING PERSPECTIVE
The Future of Cellular Cancer Immunotherapy at Winship
by MADHAV V. DHODAPKAR, MBBS
I
cell therapy revolution in cancer takes shape. T cellbased therapies, including CAR-T cells, may benefit from advanced genetic engineering to improve their function. Winship researchers are also exploring new ways to help such cells persist longer and more effectively kill cancer cells. Others are exploring new ways to target tumors, use immune cells to deliver drugs to the tumor site or engineer cells to target specific mutations or proteins within tumor
N 2013, SCIENCE MAGAZINE NAMED CANCER IMMUNOTHERAPY AS THE BREAKTHROUGH OF THE YEAR. The past decade has
PHOTOS BY: A. JACK KEARSE, B. JACK KEARSE, ILLUSTRATION BY KEITH CHAMBERS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
established immune therapy as one of the major pillars of modern cancer therapy, alongside surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and targeted therapy. Investigators at Winship have played a major role in this immune revolution, which in several cancers has led to substantial improvements in survival and served as a source of hope and inspiration for patients and researchers alike. Most current immune approaches against cancer involve two broad strategies. One involves “checkpoint inhibitors,” therapies aimed at removing the natural brakes against immune cells and allowing them to unleash their effects against cancer. The other, my focus here, involves infusing immune cells into cancer patients. This strategy has already led to impressive and durable responses in patients with hematologic (blood) cancers, and it is poised to transform care and yield cures in several other cancers.
cells. Improving scalability and reducing costs associated with cellular therapy are additional unmet needs. This is why it is likely that advances in cellbased therapies would occur through personalized approaches and may benefit from “on-site” manuThis strategy has facturing to help rapidly test innovative approaches already led to and reduce costs. impressive and Academic centers of excellence and new partnerdurable responses ship models involving industry, regulatory and fundin patients with ing agencies are critical to delivering on this promise. The National Cancer Institute in 2020 chose Winship hematologic Why Winship? as one of a limited number of cancer centers to form (blood) cancers, As Georgia’s only Comprehensive Cancer Center and a consortium focused on cell therapy. Winship also and is poised to a prolific contributor to cancer immunology research, is actively engaged in partnerships with other centers transform care and Winship is poised to help lead this revolutionary new involved in cell therapy. yield cures in sevway to treat cancers. Winship investigators have already In the past year, Winship has invested in a new been engaged in seminal studies that led to the approval cell manufacturing laboratory, Emory Cellular eral other cancers. of engineered T cell therapies called chimeric antigen and ImmunoTherapy Core (ExCITE) lab, which receptor (CAR) T cells. Several Winship researchers are actively we expect to begin manufacturing CAR-Ts for cancer patients studying and developing new methods to improve these therapies. in 2022. We anticipate this facility will help translate preclinical studies from several Winship labs to It takes a village test new cell-based therapies in the While cell-based therapies such as CAR-T cells or other immune clinic and will be central to recruiting cells, offer considerable promise, safely collecting and administering additional cell therapy researchers to them require infrastructure and a team with specialized expertise. enhance the critical mass of cell-therThis is particularly important for optimally managing early toxiciapy research at Winship. ties in patients receiving therapies. Winship has created dedicated In spite of the remarkable progress B teams of researchers, clinicians, nurses and other staff who specialand promising clinical results in recent A noted immunobiologist, ize in caring for patients before and after immune cell infusion. years, the best for cell therapy in cancer Dhodapkar is working to harness is yet to come, and I encourage you to the immune system’s properties to detect, prevent and treat Home-grown and personalized therapies are the future stay tuned. w cancer, particularly multiple Several opportunities for improvement have become clear as the myeloma. [ Winship Magazine
| 3 | Spring 2022
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