PHCbi-Panasonic eBook - 32

Cell Therapy Today * New Developments in Immunotherapy * Local Immunotherapy Shrinks Tumors Near and Far

approach uses a one-time application of very
small amounts of two agents to stimulate the
immune cells only within the tumor itself. In
the mice, we saw amazing, body-wide effects,
including the elimination of tumors all over the
animal."
Cancers often exist in a kind of immunological
limbo. Immune cells like T cells recognize the
abnormal proteins often present on cancer cells
and infiltrate to attack the tumor. However, as the
tumor grows, it often devises ways to suppress
the activity of the T cells. Dr. Levy's method
works to reactivate the cancer-specific T cells
by injecting microgram amounts of two agents
directly into the tumor site.
"This is a very targeted approach," Dr. Levy
explained. "Only the tumor that shares the
protein targets displayed by the treated site is
affected. We're attacking specific targets without
having to identify exactly what proteins the T
cells are recognizing."
To explore the specificity of the T cells stimulated
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by in situ transplantation, the study's lead author,
Idit Sagiv-Barfi, Ph.D., transplanted two types
of tumors into the mice. She transplanted the
same lymphoma cancer cells in two locations,
and then she transplanted a colon cancer cell
line in a third location. Treatment of one of the
lymphoma sites caused the regression of both
lymphoma tumors but did not affect the growth
of the colon cancer cells.
One of the agents is currently already approved
for use in humans; the other has been tested for
human use in several unrelated clinical trials. A
clinical trial was launched in January 2018 to
test the effect of the treatment in patients with
lymphoma.
The current clinical trial is expected to recruit
about 15 patients with low-grade lymphoma.
If successful, Levy believes the treatment could
be useful for many tumor types. He envisions a
future in which clinicians inject the two agents
into solid tumors in humans prior to surgical
removal of the cancer as a way to prevent recurrence due to unidentified metastases or lingering

cancer cells, or even to head off the development
of future tumors that arise due to genetic mutations like BRCA1 and 2. n

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