Pancreatic Cancer Therapy Experiment Saves Woman; Is It A Breakthrough? – Kaiser Health News

Researchers point out that another pancreatic cancer patient who received the same therapy did not respond to the treatment and died. But the highly personalized immunotherapy is being called "an important step along the way to devising treatments that might help lung, colon, and other cancers.

The New York Times:Reprogrammed Cells Attack And Tame Pancreatic Cancer In One WomanResearchers have managed to tame pancreatic cancer in a woman whose cancer was far advanced and after other forms of treatment had failed. The experiment that helped her is complex and highly personalized and is not immediately applicable to most cancer patients. Another pancreatic cancer patient, who received the same treatment, did not respond and died of her disease. Nonetheless, a leading journal The New England Journal of Medicine published a report of the study on Wednesday. (Kolata, 6/1)

AP:Novel Genetic Experiment Shrinks Tough-To-Treat CancerIn a novel experiment, a woman with advanced pancreatic cancer saw her tumors dramatically shrink after researchers in Oregon turbocharged her own immune cells, highlighting a possible new way to someday treat a variety of cancers. Kathy Wilkes isnt cured but said whats left of her cancer has shown no sign of growth since the one-time treatment last June. I knew that regular chemotherapy would not save my life and I was going for the save, said Wilkes, of Ormond Beach, Florida, who tracked down a scientist thousands of miles away and asked that he attempt the experiment. (Neergaard, 6/1)

KGW8:Portland Doctors 'First In World' To Apply New Cancer TherapyDoctors at the Providence Cancer Institute (PCI) in Portland are celebrating the successful application of a new immunotherapy to drastically reduce a patient's tumor size. ... With this single-patient success story, Dr. Eric Tran, with Earle A. Chiles Research Institute, and Providence oncologist Dr. Rom Leidner plan to expand trials to treat 24 more patients over the next two to three years. They noted similar efforts have not always been successful. (Ettlin, 6/1)

Also

Stat:How Companies Are Responding To Cancer Immunotherapy ShortageThe shortage of manufacturing slots for CAR-T cells, which has left myeloma patients dying on a wait list, came as a surprise to drugmakers and clinicians alike. When the Food and Drug Administration approved the first myeloma CAR-T product from Bristol Myers Squibb in spring of 2021, there were already four other lymphoma and leukemia CAR-T therapies on the market. Those werent facing severe supply constraints so people hadnt expected there to be issues supplying ide-cel, Bristols myeloma CAR-T, said Yi Lin, the director of the cell therapy program at the Mayo Clinic. But after the approval, the demand quickly overwhelmed Bristols ability to create CAR-T for myeloma and supply chain issues during the pandemic made it more difficult to ramp up production. (Chen, 6/2)

Stat:'How Do You Decide?' Cancer Patients Die Waiting For CAR-T TherapyWithin two years of being diagnosed with multiple myeloma, Shawn Goltzene had blasted through nearly all his options. An initial stem cell transplant couldnt hold off the cancer for more than half a year. With each new therapy his doctors tried, the cancer would surge out of remission within weeks striking the bones in his back and legs. We hit him with everything, the whole kitchen sink, said Krina Patel, the director of the myeloma cell therapy program at MD Anderson Cancer Center and Goltzenes clinician. She tried putting him on a clinical trial for an immunotherapy drug. It blew right through him. He quickly got to fourth-line therapy. (Chen, 6/2)

Austin American-Statesman:Dell Medical School Trying To End Desert In Austin Bladder Cancer CareDorothy De La Garza had frequent urinary tract infections. Then she was told she had "an overactive bladder." "Everyone assumes a woman is leaking because she's old," the 78-year-old from Austin said. After years of being on antibiotics on and off, and going to both a urologist and her primary care doctor for the same symptoms, De La Garza was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2016."Bladder cancer is sneaky," she said.(Villalpando, 5/31)

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Pancreatic Cancer Therapy Experiment Saves Woman; Is It A Breakthrough? - Kaiser Health News