If this works, it's just flat out amazing. Leukemia killed a close family member and I still donate to research.
In two separate clinical trials — sponsored by Novartis AG NOVN.VX of
Switzerland and Seattle-based biotech Juno Therapeutics Inc. — almost 90% of
patients saw their leukemia disappear after being given experimental
so-called CAR T-cell therapies. The results were published in December and
February, respectively.
Both trials were in small numbers of patients: 22 children in the Novartis
trial and 16 adults in the Juno trial. The patients had acute lymphoblastic
leukemia—the most common childhood cancer—and had exhausted standard
treatments. Both companies are now conducting larger trials.
Yeah, this is pretty much the talk of the town these days. A hem-onc fellow I surf with told me about it in July. There are real problems to work out (surviving the pretreatment and the treatment) but there's definitely a lot of buzz around it. Had one of the Moores Cancer Center pharmacists over for pizza last night. She said it's pretty crazy. They get this $250,000 package on dry ice and wait for a phone call.
