CAR-T Cells + Keytruda: New Immunotherapy for Pleural Mesothelioma?
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CAR-T Cells + Keytruda: New Immunotherapy for Pleural Mesothelioma?

ByAlex Strauss

Researchers at a top US cancer center are experimenting with a new approach to immunotherapy for pleural mesothelioma – with exciting results.  The research was done at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and published in a recent issue of Cancer Discovery.  The Phase I trial is the first to treat pleural mesothelioma patients with CAR-T cell therapy and the PD-1 blocker pembrolizumab (Keytruda). Although the trial was small, 83 percent of patients lived for more than a year. Some lived for nearly two.  Malignant Mesothelioma commonly claims the lives of patients within months. This new type of immunotherapy for pleural mesothelioma could be a breakthrough in improving survival. The Challenge of Malignant Mesothelioma Scientists have known about…

T-Cell Immunotherapy Trial Could be Good News for Mesothelioma Patients
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T-Cell Immunotherapy Trial Could be Good News for Mesothelioma Patients

ByAlex Strauss

The first four mesothelioma patients treated with a new kind of T-cell immunotherapy have responded well with few side effects.  That is the word from researchers working with the drug TC-210. TC-210 is a type of T cell therapy. It is made by TCR² Therapeutics. Malignant mesothelioma is one of several kinds of cancers that overproduce the protein mesothelin. In the Phase I trial, tumors regressed in all five cancer patients who received T-cell immunotherapy with TC-210.  Targeting Cancer with T-Cells T-cells are immune system cells that help fight cancer and other invaders. Mesothelioma and other cancers have ways of avoiding the body’s natural killer T-cell response. T-cell immunotherapy helps to turn it back on.  TC-210 is like a “living…