Rutgers Cancer Institute, together with RWJBarnabas Health, said it recently treated its 200th patient with CAR T-cell therapy, a type of immunotherapy that uses a patient’s own immune cells to fight cancer.
Harnessing the immune system to target cancer is the goal of a groundbreaking area of research called cell therapy. The process includes collecting T-cells from a patient’s blood through an infusion-like process called apheresis, and the cells are sent to a laboratory. In the lab, scientists modify the T-cells by adding a special receptor called chimeric antigen receptor, which enables the modified T-cells to seek out and kill cancer cells. The patient’s reengineered CAR T-cells are returned to them through an infusion, and the cells begin to multiply and attach to cancer cells to destroy them.
Seventy-six-year-old patient Michael Hreha was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2019. When his disease became resistant to chemotherapy, he discussed the available options with his doctor, Dr. Andrew Evens, deputy director for clinical services, Rutgers Cancer Institute, and system director of medical oncology, and oncology lead for the RWJBarnabas Health Medical Group, and knew that CAR-T cell immunotherapy was the best option for him.
“I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to receive CAR T-cell therapy close to home at Rutgers Cancer Institute,” Hreha said. “This treatment has given me a chance to fight back against my cancer and spend more time with my two sons and four grandchildren. I’m looking forward to the future with renewed optimism.”
“Reaching 200 CAR T-cell treatments is a major milestone for Rutgers Cancer Institute and RWJBarnabas Health,” said Evens, a national leader in lymphoma treatment and research. “It demonstrates our commitment to offering cutting-edge therapies close to home and providing hope to patients, like Michael, who may have felt their options were exhausted.”
“As a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, we have the scientific community, partners and facilities to pioneer new strategies not available elsewhere,” Rutgers Cancer Institute Director Dr. Steven Libutti, who is also the senior vice president of oncology services at RWJBarnabas Health, said. “We’re driving the development of next-generation CAR T-cell therapies through on-site research, which will further propel us into the future of cancer discovery and care as we open the Jack and Sheryl Morris Cancer Center in 2025.”
CAR T-cell therapy has shown remarkable success in treating advanced cases of cancers like blood cancers, lung cancer, melanoma, advanced bladder cancers and more. Rutgers Cancer Institute is uniquely positioned to advance the discovery and development of cell therapies through its own state-of-the-art Good Manufacturing Practices facility, a fully commissioned clean space for manufacturing of viral vectors and cell products for human administration.
Researchers at Rutgers Cancer Institute, together with RWJBarnabas Health, are currently working to identify how immunotherapy may work in treating more common types of cancer. There are many immunotherapy treatments available as well as several immunotherapy clinical trials at Rutgers Cancer Institute.
