Page 28 - atoday

A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 29 december 2016

Cells dripped into the brain help man fight a deadly cancer

MARILYNN MARCHIONE
AP Chief Medical Writer
A man with deadly brain
cancer that had spread
to his spine saw his tumors
shrink and, for a time, com-
pletely vanish after a novel
treatment to help his im-
mune system attack his dis-
ease — another first in this
promising field.
The type of immuno-
therapy that 50-year-old
Richard Grady received
already has helped some
people with blood can-
cers such as leukemia. But
the way he was given it is
new, and may allow its use
not just for brain tumors but
also other cancers that
can spread, such as breast
and lung.
Grady was the first per-
son to get the treatment
dripped through a tube
into a space in the brain
where spinal fluid is made,
sending it down the path
the cancer traveled to his
spine.
He had “a remarkable re-
sponse” that opens the This March 2016 photo provided by the City of Hope hospital shows patient Richard Grady in Duarte, Calif.
door to wider testing, said Associated Press
Dr. Behnam Badie, neu-
rosurgery chief at City of
Hope, a cancer center in The treatment, called CAR- cells there. than a year and half” after dose. A paper detailing re-
Duarte, California, where T cell therapy, has been “The idea was to have the starting it is amazing for a sults is in the works, but “it’s
Grady was treated. used for blood cancers, but flow of the spinal fluid carry situation where survival of- pretty striking what we’ve
The case is reported in this its value for solid tumors is the T cells to different loca- ten is measured in weeks, found,” he said.
week’s New England Jour- unknown. City of Hope has tions,” along the route the Badie said. At City of Hope, nine pa-
nal of Medicine. been testing injecting the cancer had taken, Badie Side effects of the treat- tients have been treated
Each year in the United cells directly into the brain. said. ment were manageable, so far, but only three with
States, about 20,000 peo- First, Grady had more sur- After three treatments, all including headaches, fa- infusions into the spinal flu-
ple are diagnosed with a gery to remove three of tumors had shrunk dra- tigue and muscle aches, id brain cavity. Two of the
type of brain tumor called his largest tumors. Then he matically. After the 10th and some may have been nine have not responded
glioblastoma. Grady, who got six weekly infusions of treatment, “we saw all the due to other medicines to treatment, Badie said.
lives in Seattle, had the the cells through a tube tumors disappear,” and Grady needed, doctors re- His study is supported by
usual surgery, radiation into his brain, where the Grady was able to cut ported. the nonprofit Gateway
and chemotherapy, but biggest one had been. No back on other medicines It’s early research, but it’s for Cancer Research, the
the cancer came back. cancer recurred there, but and return to work, Badie an advance for the field Food and Drug Administra-
He enrolled in a clini- the remaining tumors con- said. “that they showed this is tion, the California Institute
cal trial at City of Hope tinued to grow, new ones New tumors, though, have safe, at least in this patient,” for Regenerative Medicine
and had some of his own appeared, and cancer now emerged in different said Dr. Donald O’Rourke, and the National Institutes
blood cells, called T cells, spread to his spine. spots in his brain and spine, a neurosurgeon heading a of Health. Some authors
removed and genetically Doctors decided on a and he is getting radiation similar study at the Univer- get royalties from pend-
modified in the lab to turn bold step: placing a sec- treatment. But his response sity of Pennsylvania. ing patents or money from
them into specialized sol- ond tube in his brain, into to immunotherapy lasted O’Rourke treated 10 brain Mustang Bio, Inc., which
diers to seek and destroy a cavity where spinal fluid more than seven months, tumor patients with CAR- has licensed some of the
cancer. is made, and putting the and “for him to live more T cells but used a single IV technology.q