QLD haematologist leads the charge in expanding CAR-T therapy access for cancer patients

Pharma News: A Brisbane haematologist and clinical scientist is on a mission to make CAR-T cell therapy more accessible to Australian cancer patients by developing locally designed CAR-T cell therapies.

Recently, the Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC) recommended the CAR-T therapy Carvykti (cilta-cel) from Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine (Janssen) as a fifth-line treatment for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. However, the road to making this therapy available to patients is long.

The next step requires finalising a deed of agreement between the Federal Government and J&J Innovative Medicine for 50% of the funding. Drawing from previous experiences with CAR-T therapies from Gilead, this process could take between 18 to 30 months. Subsequently, negotiations with State Governments for the remaining 50% of the funding will begin.

Dr Siok Tey, Head of QIMR Berghofer’s Translational Cancer Immunotherapy group and a haematologist specialising in blood cancer at RBWH, emphasised the potential for local advancements.

“We have the expertise here to not only make CAR-T cells locally at a lower cost, but also to make potentially better CAR-T cells,” said Dr Tey.

Jane Campbell, a mother of two, is now in remission from a rare form of lymphoma after participating in a phase I clinical trial led by Dr Tey. Having exhausted all other options following multiple rounds of chemotherapy, Jane found hope through the clinical trial at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH).

“I went from having no options to being given the best option in my own hometown. It was like I’d drawn the golden ticket. I am so grateful to have been offered a treatment that so few people in the world with my condition have been able to access,” Jane said. Although the trial treatment was not without risks and cannot yet be deemed a cure, Jane now has hope where before there was none.

“The success rate of CAR-T cell therapy is around 50% for certain types of blood cancer. In the patients who respond, the recovery can seem miraculous because these patients have failed all other treatment,” Dr Tey said. “The other 50% of patients do not respond, and there are many patients with other types of blood cancers where CAR-T cell therapies are not yet available or do not work well. We believe we can change that.”

Dr Tey aims to enhance access and effectiveness of CAR-T cells for lymphoma, and expand the technology to other types of cancer, including myeloma and solid cancers such as neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer.

Andy Scott, a father of three from Queensland, has been living with myeloma since 2017 and hopes to benefit from Dr Tey’s research one day. Despite conventional treatments, including maintenance chemotherapy, keeping his cancer at bay, he knows they will eventually cease to work.

“Living with cancer is like having a gun held to your head and not knowing if or when it will go off. I want to be here for my family and see my children grow up,” Andy said. “It’s nice to know that the technology exists, but if it’s out of reach, then it’s not really good for myself and other people in my situation.”

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