Advances in the diagnosis and treatment of blood cancers have helped double the survival rates of patients and the future stats may be even more encouraging. Blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma made up almost 10 percent of all cancer cases diagnosed. There are newer advancements all the time that hike up the survival rates. Clinical oncologists are further excited for the new possible advancements which include:
Table of contents:
- CAR-T
- Bispecific monoclonal antibodies
- Targeted therapy
- Antibody drug conjugate
CAR-T
CAR-T cell immunotherapy is a procedure which programs the body’s T cells to attack cancer, works well for many people with blood cancer. It is providing long remissions and even a cure in some cases. There is however some side effects to CAR-T’s therapy.
Scientists and researchers are tirelessly working to minimize and ideally eliminate the potentially severe side effects of CAR-T. In order to create the CAR-T cells, a sample of a person’s T cells are taken from the blood and engineered in a fashion that special structures known as chimeric antigen receptors are on their surface. When these engineered cells are injected back into the person, the receptors help the T cells identify and attack cancer cells throughout the body.
Hundreds of clinical trials are underway for the procedure. CAR T-cell therapy targets blood cancers such as mantle cell lymphoma, multiple myeloma, follicular non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
Bispecific monoclonal antibodies
Meanwhile, there are other therapies that show potential to be viable alternatives for cancer that cannot be treated with CAR-T. One of these groundbreaking treatments is bispecific antibodies which are artificial proteins that can simultaneously bind to two different types of antigen.
One of those bispecific antibodies, odronextamab, showed positive results in relapsed/refractory non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, including in people who have previously received CAR-T.
Targeted therapy
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TarTTTargeted therapy is another rising star in the blood cancer world is. At the present moment, the 5-year survival rate for adults with acute myeloid leukemia is 28.7 %. New data shows that a genetically targeted menin inhibitor can effectively treat acute myeloid leukemia. The preliminary in- human data were very encouraging for patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia.
Antibody drug conjugate
Antibody drug conjugates are targeted drugs which combine monoclonal antibodies specific to surface antigens present on particular tumor cells with toxic anticancer agents linked. Antibody drug conjugate demonstrated durable responses in people with advanced mantle cell lymphoma or diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, including those who received prior therapies, including CAR-T and stem cell transplantation. After the antibody binds to the antigen on the cancer cells, the antibody is designed to enter those cells and release the toxin to destroy the cancer cells.
Dr. Saptarshi Ghosh is one of the best clinical oncologists specializing in radiation oncology.
