The development of CAR-T technology in recent years has been a major milestone in the fight against cancer. These sort of "living drugs"—T-cells modified to expand, recognize and attack cancer cells within the body—offer hope to many patients after relapse or failure of the standard treatment, especially in blood cancers. However, sustained complete remissions are only observed in less than 50% of the patients one year after infusion, leaving room for improvement.
A new study from the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute identifies three key features of the CAR-T cells themselves that help predict the success of the therapy, regardless of the patient. The study, published in Cell Reports Medicine , is authored by Mercedes Guerrero and Aina Rill, and led by Pablo Menéndez, Clara Bueno and Elisabetta Mereu, with the collaboration of the Hospital Clínic de Barcleona and the Salamanca's Biomedical Research Institute (IBSAL), providing patients and critical clinical data. These institutions are part of the CIBERONC program and the Spanish Advanced Therapies Network (TERAV-ISCIII).
Using the latest technologies in single cell multiomics, the research team analyzed the effectiveness of an already in-use CAR-T product against B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia , varnimcabtagene autoleucel (varni-cel), correlating the effects to its biological features. They studied the product before being injected into the patients (infusion product) and during its expansion inside th.