Category Archives: Cell Therapy

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SAN DIEGO Abused orphan pup "Dwyane," who has severe disfigurements, is on the road to recovery after stem cell therapy by a Poway-based company.

The one-year-old puppy was reportedly kicked, beaten and forced to wear a wire muzzle before he was rescued in Tijuana.

Last month, he was taken to Helen Woodward Animal Center in Rancho Sante Fe. Since then, the dog has undergone several procedures, including a hip surgery Tuesday.

Animal hospital officials said Dwaynes work isnt over yet, as he still needs major reconstruction to his elbow and additional facial surgeries to help him breathe easier.

There is no risk involved because we use the dog's own tissue to isolate the stem cell, said Dr. Jeffrey Schaffer with VetStem of Poway.

Today, we gave the injection of the stem cells in the hip and then a slow one through the vein," said Dr. Patricia Carter, chief veterinarian at Helen Woodward Animal Center. "Then we gave him something that made him unsleepy, but hes still recovering from the surgery two days ago.

Dwayne is a warrior and shows his love to those who have love to give.

He is adorable, sweet and with everything that is going on, he wants to give you kisses and love, Schaffer said.

Over $40,000 has been donated to Dwayne for medical costs from around the world, including Paris. He also has had plenty of people giving well wishes and dropping off toys at the animal hospital.

The animal center posts updates on Dwayne and other orphan pets on itswebsite.

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Abused pup receives cutting-edge stem cell therapy | fox5sandiego ... - fox5sandiego.com

By Deena Beasley | CHICAGO

CHICAGO A small trial conducted in China found that an experimental therapy using altered cells to recruit the body's immune system to attack cancer can induce remission in most patients with advanced multiple myeloma, a blood plasma cancer.

The study of 35 patients tested a chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy developed by China's Nanjing Legend Biotech Co.

The drug candidate, known as LCAR-B38M, targets a protein called BCMA found on cancerous blood plasma cells - the same target being pursued by Bluebird Bio Inc and Celgene Corp with their CAR-T called bb2121.

CAR-T therapies require a complicated process of extracting immune system T cells from an individual patient, altering their DNA to sharpen their ability to spot and kill cancer cells, and infusing them back into the same patient.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology, which featured the data here at its annual meeting, said that out of 19 trial patients followed for more than four months, 14 reached complete remission. One patient had a partial response and four patients reached "very good partial remission," but the cancer did get worse in one of those patients.

Multiple myeloma "is a disease you can treat pretty well with other drugs, but this could be long-term remission," said Dr. Bruce Johnson, chief clinical research officer at Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and ASCO's incoming president.

Eighty five percent of trial patients experienced cytokine release syndrome (CRS), a potentially life-threatening inflammatory condition, but researchers said the side effect was temporary and manageable in most patients. Two people had severe CRS, but recovered after treatment with Actemra, an anti-inflammatory drug.

The study is being conducted at Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University in Xi'an, China.

The largest investor in Nanjing Legend Biotech is Genscript Biotech, a multinational provider of contract research services to pharmaceutical companies and others, according to Dr. Frank Fan, chief scientific officer at Nanjing Legend.

He said the company plans to enroll a total of 100 patients in the Chinese trial and to start a similar trial in the United States in early 2018.

"At ASCO I will hope to find collaborators in the U.S.," Fan told Reuters. "We are open for collaboration at different levels."

So far two companies have filed for U.S. approval of CAR-T drugs targeting a different protein called CD19. Kite Pharma Inc expects the Food and Drug Administration to decide by Nov. 29 whether to approve axicabtagene ciloleucel for advanced non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer that starts in white blood cells.

The FDA is also reviewing Novartis AG's tisagenlecleucel-T for pediatric and young adult patients with relapsed/refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

(Reporting by Deena Beasley; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

SINGAPORE Singapore on Friday confirmed two cases of locally transmitted infections of the mosquito-borne Zika virus, bringing the total number of reported cases in the city-state this year to eight.

TOKYO Japan has dropped proposals on price cuts for prescription drugs aimed at boosting the use of generic drugs, underscoring the government's struggle to rein in bulging social security costs for a rapidly ageing nation.

Link:
Chinese cell therapy effective in small multiple myeloma trial | Reuters - Reuters

Kathlyn Stone is an associate editor at HealthNewsReview.org. She tweets as @KatKStone.

An experimental immunotherapy treatment for multiple myeloma from a biotech company in China captured wide attention at the just-concluded American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting.

Weve been following news reports from the meeting closely since it kicked off last Friday:

ASCOs news release on the new treatment, a form of CAR T-cell therapy, noted that the phase 1 results are preliminary and that the small trial was short-term. But then it blew past those cautions by speculating that the treatment could send multiple myeloma into long-term remission and might represent a cure for this incurable disease. The treatment costs werent included, either.

Andrae Vandross, MD, a hematology/oncology fellow at UCLA and a contributor to HealthNewsReview.org, said the news release had some important details, such as a discussion of adverse events, particularlycytokine release syndrome (CRS), which affected many patients.

But overall, I wish more attention was paid to the fact that this small trial was to examine safety and efficacy and that much more needs to be done to make statements regarding clinically meaningful impact on disease, Vandross said.

The shortcomings of the news release can be found repeated in some of the news coverage.

Reuterss story, Chinese cell therapy effective in small multiple myeloma trial didnt explain harms well nor mention costs.

FierceBiotechs article played up the horse race aspect of the pharmaceutical industry where competing companies race to get media and investor attention for their preliminary research, ASCO dark horse Nanjing Legend Biotech shines with promising CAR-T data. But costs didnt make it into the discussion.

Nor was the price tag mentioned in The Scientists piece, CAR T-Cell trials boast promising results.

Deborah Korenstein, MD, an internist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, who did attend the meeting, found some of the reports on the CAR-T study lacking.

None of these articles mentions cost, though CAR-T therapy is very expensive. They do note that the follow-up is short-term so far, though they also talk about long-term remission (in the case of the Reuters piece) or cure (in the ASCO press release), which at the very least sends a mixed message.

NBC News piece, CAR-T Cancer Approach Has Surprising Success in Multiple Myeloma, reflects some of this mixed messaging.After reporting that the results were impressive and remarkable and that the study brings hope of a possible cure, the NBC story eventually broaches the issues of adverse effects and costs: The treatment is expected to cost $200,000 to $300,000, and whos going to pay for that is a big issue, according to a study author.

What does Korenstein think news organizations and public relations people could do better?

Stick to the evidence at hand, avoid speculating about outcomes that havent been determined, and make sure that potential harms are described as thoroughly as benefits.

Certainly there is no evidence so far to support those claims about longer term outcomes. They say it in a hedgy way but to me they shouldnt be mentioning it at all. They also play down the fact that the huge majority of patients had CRS, even if it was often not severe which is generally defined as requiring hospitalization. Its not clear here what severe means.

Dr. Korenstein disclosed that her spouse consults for Vedanta Biosciences.

Kevin Lomangino is the managing editor of HealthNewsReview.org. He tweets as @KLomangino. You'll be tempted

This week we begin a slow roll-out of a new offer of help to those

Today kicks off the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the world's

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CAR T-cell therapy Why it's too soon to speculate about a 'cure' for multiple myeloma - HealthNewsReview.org

A Philadelphia-based company along with an Indian orthopedic surgeon has said it will start a new type of stem cell therapy that claims it can bring people back from the dead.

Bioquark, led by chief executive Ira Pastor, said it will begin conducting trials of the therapy later in the year in an undisclosed country in Latin America, according to a New York Post report.

Pastor and Indian orthopedic surgeon Himanshu Bansal had initially hoped to run tests in India in 2016 but the Indian Council of Medical Research pulled the plug on their plans and asked them to take the trials elsewhere, the Post reported.

Most countries officially declare someone dead when there is irreversible loss of brain function. The Bioquark therapy boasts it can reboot the brain.

The company said it will begin testing on humans, with no plans to experiment on animals.

Scientists plan to examine individuals aged between 15 and 65 who have been declared brain dead from a traumatic brain injury, the report noted, citing a published study.

The three-stage process starts with harvesting stem cells from the patients own blood before injecting them back into their body. Next, the patient is given a dose of peptides injected into their spinal cord. The final step is a 15-day course of laser and median nerve stimulation while monitoring the patient with MRI scans.

Bansal practices in New Delhi.

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Bioquark Hopes to Bring Dead Back to Life Using Stem Cell Therapy - India West

June 8, 2017 T cells attack a tumor cell and secrete lytic proteins (red/yellow) in order to destroy it. Credit: Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen

Scientists have armed immune cells with a new surface molecule. This causes the cells to respond particularly aggressively when they encounter a protein that tumors actually use to camouflage themselves from the immune system. Researchers from the Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen and various partners introduced the method in Cancer Research.

With numerous different entities and millions of people affected, cancer continues to be one of the most prevalent diseases around the world. Scientists are working to find new treatment possibilities, and have been concentrating on the body's own immune system for some time.

"Because cancer emerges from the body's own cells, it is usually difficult for the immune system to distinguish good cells from bad ones," explains Prof. Dr. Elfriede Nner, head of the Tissue Control of Immunocytes Research Group at the Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen. "But there are ways to support the immune system in recognizing and combating cancer cells."

Focus on T-cell therapy

One approach is the so-called adoptive T-cell therapy, which involves removing immune cells from the body and genetically arming them. The cells are given new structures on the surface that accurately lead them to the cancer cells.

One limitation in this form of therapy is that the binding between the immune cell and the cancer cell is often somewhat weak. "Although this binding can be artificially strengthened, doing so also increases the risk of unwanted binding to healthy structures in the body," explains study leader Nner. She and her team were therefore searching for a different way to improve the defense provided by the immune cells.

Attack instead of sleep mode

In the current work, the researchers present a new surface molecule which comprises two halves. On the outside, it preferentially binds to the PD-L1 molecule, which tumor cells often form in order to thwart the attacking immune cells. On the inside of the T-cells, however, this binding does not activate a sleep mode (which the natural protein would do), and instead activates the T-cell's killer program, making it especially aggressive. Experimental models showed that T-cells armed in this way proliferate more strongly in the tumors and destroyed more tumor cells.

The next step will be to confirm the findings in clinical studies. "If that step succeeds, the approach would enlarge the arsenal of T-cells suitable for adoptive T-cell therapy," Elfriede Nner states. "This could not only make the treatment more effective but would allow it to be used in more patients in the framework of personalized medicine."

Explore further: Platelets suppress T cell immunity against cancer

More information: Ramona Schlenker et al. Chimeric PD-1:28 receptor upgrades low-avidity T cells and restores effector function of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes for adoptive cell therapy, Cancer Research (2017). DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-16-1922

Blood platelets help disguise cancer from the immune system by suppressing T cells, report scientists at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in the May 5, 2017 issue of Science Immunology. In extensive preclinical ...

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) prevents infected cells from being attacked by the immune system. The virus drives production of small molecules, so-called microRNAs, that suppress alarm signals sent out by the infected cell. Scientists ...

Immunotherapy is a new and highly promising form of treatment for cancer. In many patients, however, tumors recur after immunotherapy. In the latest issue of the Journal of Experimental Medicine, the members of a research ...

Researchers of the Cancer Virotherapy Research Group of Bellvitge Biomedicine Research Institute (IDIBELL), led by Dr. Ramon Alemany, have developed an oncolytic virus capable of redirecting the patient's immune system against ...

The Shin Kaneko lab found that reprogramming one type of iNKT cells to iPS cells and then differentiating them back results in reprogrammed iNKT cells (re-iNKT cells) that show properties of another type. The ability to make ...

Adult stem cells from mice converted to antigen-specific T cells -- the immune cells that fight cancer tumor cells -- show promise in cancer immunotherapy and may lead to a simpler, more efficient way to use the body's immune ...

Researchers at ANU are working on a new treatment for an aggressive type of leukemia that outperforms standard chemotherapies.

Scientists have armed immune cells with a new surface molecule. This causes the cells to respond particularly aggressively when they encounter a protein that tumors actually use to camouflage themselves from the immune system. ...

Researchers have found a new way to use immunotherapy, a breakthrough mode of cancer treatment which harnesses the patient's immune system, to treat an aggressive form of breast cancer.

Genetic manipulation of exosomes, virus-sized particles released by all cells, may offer a new therapeutic approach to treating pancreatic cancer, according to a study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Patients who receive the standard surgical treatment for melanoma that has spread to one or more key lymph nodes do not live longer, a major new study shows.

An analysis of breast cancer data revealed that many small breast cancers have an excellent prognosis because they are inherently slow growing, according to Yale Cancer Center experts. Often, these cancers will not grow large ...

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New approach in T-cell therapy to treat cancer - Medical Xpress

ZURICH Novartis on Wednesday touted new data from its T-cell therapy CTL019, saying it is on a par with results of experimental molecules from Kite Pharma and Juno Therapeutics that also target aggressive blood cancers.

Three months after infusion, the overall response rate (ORR)among 51 adult patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) was 45 percent, Novartis said, with 37 percent complete responses (CR), or no sign of disease.

Novartis aims for $1 billion in annual sales for CTL019, a drug made by taking T cells from a patient, reprogramming them in the lab to fight cancer, and re-infusing them. The field is crowded, with Kite and Juno also hunting for approval for drugs whose per-patient costs could top $500,000.

"When you look across the three competitors' data sets, they're all in a similar range of responses," Novartis drug development chief Vas Narasimhan said in an interview. "What's critical is to see the data sets fully mature... and look at the overall safety profile."

Narasimhan said no deaths were linked to CTL019, though three patients died from disease progression within 30 days of infusion. Seven suffered severe neurological events.

While so-called "CAR-T therapies" from Novartis, Kite and Juno are now last resorts for patients who have failed other treatments, more doctors are growing convinced they have promise. Globally, there are some 183 CAR-T trials underway.

In March, Novartis filed CTL019 with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for fast-track approval in B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in young patients. The FDA has scheduled a July 12 public meeting for that.

Novartis could file for FDA approval in DLBCL, the most common form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in adults, around October, with European filings planned about the same time.

Rival Kite Pharma's experimental drug axi-cel is also under expedited U.S. review against advanced NHL, with additional trials underway in leukaemia patients.

Kite has said 41 percent of NHL patients responded to axi-cel treatment at the six-month cutoff, with 36 percent in complete response.

Though Juno Therapeutics has suffered significant setbacks -- patient deaths forced it to abandon its lead CAR-T molecule this year -- the company released fresh data last week on another drug, JCAR017, against NHL.

Novartis is studying why some patients respond to CTL019 while others' cancers avoid detection.

Additional trials are planned, including with newer CAR-Ts combined with other drugs.

"There's just a lot of science that's yet to be understood," Narasimhan said. "I hope we have better answers next year ... for what's going on in the non-responders."

(Reporting by John Miller, editing by Louise Heavens)

BRUSSELS The European Union's top court barred Germany's Dextro Energy on Thursday from making claims about the health benefits of glucose contained in its products, which include Dextrose tablets.

JOHANNESBURG South Africa said on Thursday it was suspending all trade in birds and chicken products from neighboring Zimbabwe after it reported an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu at a commercial poultry farm.

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Novartis touts new T-cell therapy data in race for FDA approval - Reuters

Cancer is an abnormal growth of cells the proximate cause of which is an imbalance in cell proliferation and death breaking-through the normal physiological checks and balances system and the ultimate cause of which are one or more of a variety of gene alterations. These alterations can be structural, e.g., mutations, insertions, deletions, amplifications, fusions and translocations, or functional (heritable changes without changes in nucleotide sequence). No single genomic change is found in all cancers and multiple changes (heterogeneity) are commonly found in each cancer generally independent of histology. In healthy adults, the immune system may recognize and kill the cancer cells or allow a non-detrimental host-cancer equilibrium; unfortunately, cancer cells can sometimes escape the immune system resulting in expansion and spread of these cancer cells leading to serious life threatening disease. Approaches to cancer gene therapy include three main strategies: the insertion of a normal gene into cancer cells to replace a mutated (or otherwise altered) gene, genetic modification to silence a mutated gene, and genetic approaches to directly kill the cancer cells.

Furthermore, approaches to cellular cancer therapy currently largely involve the infusion of immune cells designed to either (i) replace most of the patients own immune system to enhance the immune response to cancer cells, (ii) activate the patients own immune system (T cells or Natural Killer cells) to kill cancer cells, or (iii) to directly find and kill the cancer cells. Moreover, genetic approaches to modify cellular activity further alter endogenous immune responsiveness against cancer.

Currently, multiple promising clinical trials using these gene and cell based approaches are ongoing in Phase I through Phase III testing in patients with a variety of different types of cancer.

Cancer is a process in which cells grow aberrantly. The growth of cancer cells leads to damage of normal tissues, causing loss of function and often pain. Many types of tumors shed cells that migrate to other distant sites in the body, establish a base there, and grow continuously. These secondary cancer sites, called metastases, cause local destruction, loss of normal tissue function and can acquire an even greater propensity to shed. Multiple cumulative genetic and/or epigenetic changes are needed to cause cancer. Those genes on which the maintenance of the cancer process depends are called driver genes which, unlike passenger genes, are key targets although non-driver genes can also contribute to cancer growth.

A number of gene therapy strategies are being evaluated in patients with cancer and these include manipulating cells to gain or lose function. For example, half of all cancers have a mutated p53 protein that interferes with the ability of tumor cells to self-destruct by a process called apoptosis. To this end, investigators are currently testing in clinical trials the ability to genetically introduce a normal p53 gene into these cancer cells. Introduction of a normal p53 gene renders the tumor cells more sensitive to standard chemotherapy and radiation treatments compared to tumor cells expressing the abnormal protein. Furthermore, other tumor suppressor genes are being placed in gene cassettes for expression in tumor cells, which can similarly render them more sensitive to apoptosis, or the process of programmed cell death. Other investigators are utilizing gene therapy approaches to induce expression of immune stimulating proteins called cytokines which in turn may increase the ability of the patients own immune system to recognize and kill these cancer cells. Another immune modulating alternative entering the clinic is the use of RNA interference (RNAi) silencing of endogenous cancer intracellular immune suppressor proteins, e.g., TGF beta, as a component of immunotherapy.

Along this line, gene silencing has been designed to inhibit the expression of specific genes which are activated or over expressed in cancer cells and can drive tumor growth (with particular attention to presumptive driver genes), blood vessel formation, seeding of tumor cells to other tissues, and allow for resistance to chemotherapy. Several such genes, termed oncogenes, are often expressed continuously at high concentrations in cancer cells and express proteins that increase cell growth and/or division. Alternatively, tumor growth requires new blood vessel formation to survive, a process known as angiogenesis, which is mediated by an array of interacting proteins. A number of approaches to gene silencing have been or are being explored in the clinic including anti-sense oligonucleotides (ASO), short interfering RNA (siRNA) and short hairpin RNA (shRNA) that target post-transcription mRNA, and bi-functional shRNA which has both post-transcriptional silencing and translation-inhibitory effects.

Furthermore, tumor cells can loose intercellular cohesion, enter the bloodstream and seed other tissues, enabled by epithelial-mesenchymal transition, where they can undergo mesenchymal-epithelial transition and grow at the newly seeded site; once again mediated by a different set of genes. Finally, scientists have identified genes in tumor cells, which allow for these tumor cells to escape killing by chemotherapy. Therefore, an alternative gene therapy approach for cancer is to target one or more of these genes in order to suppress or silence their expression resulting in an inability of these tumor cells to either maintain cell growth, inhibit metastases, impair blood vessel formation, or reverse drug resistance. Mesenchymal stem cells, which have cancer-trophic migratory properties, are being engineered to express anti-proliferative, anti-EMT, and anti-angiogenic agents.

Alternatively, gene therapy approaches may be designed to directly kill tumor cells using tumor-killing viruses, or through the introduction of genes termed suicide genes into the tumor cells. Scientists have generated viruses, termed oncolytic viruses, which grow selectively in tumor cells as compared to normal cells. For example, an expanding number of human viruses such as measles virus, vesticular stomatitis virus, reovirus, adenovirus, and herpes simplex virus (HSV) can be genetically modified to grow in tumor cells with consequent cell kill, but very poorly in normal cells thereby establishing a therapeutic advantage. . Oncolytic viruses spread deep into tumors to deliver a genetic payload that destroys cancerous cells. Several viruses with oncolytic properties are naturally occurring animal viruses (Newcastle Disease Virus) or are based on an animal virus such as vaccinia virus (cow pox virus or the small pox vaccine). A few human viruses such as coxsackie virus A21 are similarly being tested for these properties. In addition, oncolytic viruses can be genetically modified (i.e. GM-CSF DNA transfer)so as to enhance immunogenicity (e.g., HSV). The combination of selective oncolytic cell death with release of danger-associated molecular-patterns and tumor-associated antigens with heightened immunogenicity has been shown both enhanced local and spatially additive effects. Currently, multiple clinical trials are recruiting patients to test oncolytic viruses for the treatment of various types of cancers.

Suicide genes encode enzymes that are produced in tumor cells to convert a nontoxic prodrug into a toxic drug. Examples of suicide enzymes and their prodrugs include HSV thymidine kinase (ganciclovir), Escherichia coli purine nucleoside phosphorylase (fludarabine phosphate), cytosine deaminase (5-fluorocytosine), cytochrome p450 (cyclophosphamide), cytochrome p450 reductase (tirapazamine), carboxypeptidase (CMDA), and a fusion protein with cytosine deaminase linked to mutant thymidine kinase. Significantly, prior pilot studies suggested that the treatment of the prostate cancer cells with the suicide genes introduced by the oncolytic virus increased cancer cell sensitivity to radiation and chemotherapy.

Most of the above approaches have the limitation that they require delivery of a "corrective" gene to every cancer cell, a demanding task. An alternative is to harness the immune system, which may have an ability to actively seek out cancer cells. In healthy adults, the immune system recognizes and kills precancerous cells as well early cancer cells, but cancer progression is an evolutionary process and results in large part from an immune-evasive adaptive response to the cancer microenvironment affecting both the afferent and efferent arms of the immune response arc. This results in inhibition of the ability of a patients immune system to target and eradicate the tumor cells. To this end, investigators are developing and testing several cell therapy strategies to correct impairment of the host-cancer immune interaction and as a consequence, to improve the immune systems ability to eliminate cancer.

Cell therapy for cancer refers to one or more of 3 different approaches: (i) therapy with cells that give rise to a new immune system which may be better able to recognize and kill tumor cells through the infusion of hematopoietic stem cells derived from either umbilical cord blood, peripheral blood, or bone marrow cells, (ii) therapy with immune cells such as dendritic cells which are designed to activate the patients own resident immune cells (e.g. T cells) to kill tumor cells, and (iii) direct infusion of immune cells such as T cells and NK cells which are prepared to find, recognize, and kill cancer cells directly. In all three cases, therapeutic cells are harvested and prepared in the laboratory prior to infusion into the patient. Immune cells including dendritic cells, T cells, and NK cells, can be selected for desired properties and grown to high numbers in the laboratory prior to infusion. Challenges with these cellular therapies include the ability of investigators to generate sufficient function and number of cells for therapy.

Clinical trials of cell therapy for many different cancers are currently ongoing. More recently, scientists have developed novel cancer therapies by combining both gene and cell therapies. Specifically, investigators have developed genes which encode for artificial receptors, which, when expressed by immune cells, allow these cells to specifically recognize cancer cells thereby increasing the ability of these gene modified immune cells to kill cancer cells in the patient. One example of this approach, which is currently being studied at multiple centers, is the gene transfer of a class of novel artificial receptors called chimeric antigen receptors or CARs for short, into a patients own immune cells, typically T cells. Investigators believe that this approach may hold promise in the future for patients many different types of cancer. To this end, multiple pilot clinical trials for a variety of cancer types using T cells genetically modified to express tumor specific CARs are ongoing, some of which are showing promising results.

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Cancer Gene Therapy and Cell Therapy | ASGCT - American ...

Commentary by Dmitry M. Arbuck, MD, President and Medical Director, Indiana Polyclinic

We are at a truly revolutionary time in health and medicine. The introduction of stem cell technology represents innovation on the same level as the development of antibiotics or the invention of modern imaging (MRIs, etc.). Stem cells are already changing the way medicine is delivered, increasing lifespans and saving countless lives.

Arbuck

Scientists and researchers have been studying the benefits of stem cells for more than 30 years. They have found that these special cells provide great benefits all over the body, from muscles and joints to chronic diseases, to growing new teeth. You may have read about athletes treated with stem cells to speed healing after an injury or about burn victims who use stem cell therapy to minimize scarring.

Stem cells used to be associated with embryos, but this is no longer the case. Today, live cells for treatment are either adult stem cells or umbilical cord blood stem cells. Adult stem cells are most likely extracted from tissue, like bone marrow or fat, which can be a painful and invasive process. Additionally, as we age, so do our stem cells, which become less potent and productive over time. Like every other tissue in our bodies, they are exposed to the toxins, radiation and other pollutants in the environment. Umbilical cord blood stem cells are collected from the donated cord blood and placenta of healthy newborns. The cells are then screened for disease and genetic problems. These umbilical stem cells are vibrant, vital and healthy.

When umbilical cord stem cells are infused, they carry a whole host of immune stabilizing factors throughout the body and work to repair the immune system. This is likely why stem cells are so helpful in the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohns disease, dermatitis and myasthenia gravis. Other things that may be successfully treated with this therapy include MS, lupus, graft vs. host disease and other immune conditions.

The future is today. For more, visit StemCellsIndy.com.

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Column: Stem Cell Therapy A medical revolution - Current in Carmel

As the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology enters its final day, US biotech major

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Celgene updates on two T cell therapy collaborations - The Pharma Letter (registration)

ByNEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

DOCTORS Hospital plans to launch stem cell therapy and enter the primary healthcare market during its current financial year, after profits for the year to end-January 2017 increased five-fold.

The BISX-listed healthcare provider said it planned to launch both initiatives at its Bahamas Medical Centre facility on Blake Road, having received the necessary approvals for one stem cell programme and another in its final stages.

Doctors Hospitals 2017 annual report did not identify the types of stem cell treatment involved, but said: It is envisioned that stem cell therapy will occur at the facility [Bahamas Medical Centre] in fiscal 2018, with one programme already receiving the necessary approvals and the second programme in its final stages of assessment and approval......

We anticipate that in fiscal 2018 we will launch one of our primary care centres at this location, supported by increased specialist services to best serve the neighbouring communities.

Joe Krukowski, Doctors Hospitals chairman, told shareholders via the annual report that the launch of primary care services will be a vital component in the continuum of care we provide.

We will seek to provide our customers with multiple entry points for this level of care, he added.

Doctors Hospitals stem cell initiatives, in particular, represent a potential boost to the Bahamas national effort to make greater inroads into the medical tourism market while also exploiting legislation passed by the former Christie administration.

The healthcare providers move into primary care will effectively create a fully-integrated model, combining with its core business in secondary and tertiary care provision to potentially make Doctors Hospital almost a one-stop shop for all medical needs.

The expansion comes after Doctors Hospital saw total comprehensive income for the year to end-January 2017 grow by 409 per cent or more than five-fold, from $702,790 to $3.578 million year-over-year.

The growth was driven entirely by the companys main Collins Avenue facility, where profits more than doubled, increasing by 157.4 per cent to $4.778 million compared to $1.856 million the year before. The Bahamas Medical Centres net loss increased slightly compared to the prior year, rising from $1.153 million to $1.2 million.

An improved top-line drove Doctors Hospitals improved profitability, with patient services revenue up $3.65 million or 7.4 per cent at $52.713 million.

Patient days increased by 6 per cent from the previous year, the annual report said of the main Collins Avenue hospital. Increases in the Intensive and Intermediary Care Units accounted for 37per centof the change, and the balance in medical surgical and maternity.

Total admissions to the facility were 4,114 in fiscal 2017 compared to 4,063 in fiscal 2016. The continued flat admission numbers and increased patient days are indicative of the trend toward a rising severity of illness. The average daily census increased to 33 patients per day from 31.2 in the previous year.

Doctors Hospitals total expenses grew by $818,452 or 1.7 per cent year-over-year, with salaries and benefits rising by $1.176 million or 5.6 per cent to $23.209 million. Due to the top-line growth, these fell as a percentage of patient net revenue from 44.3 per cent to 43.5 per cent.

At Bahamas Medical Centre, revenues rose by $28,015 or 1.9 per cent to $1.462 million. This slightly outpaced the increase in expenses, which jumped by 1.5 per cent or $43,479 to $2.819 million as a result of rising medical supplies costs.

Doctors Hospital is budgeting $7 million for capital spending projects in its financial year to end-January 2018, a sum more than double the prior years $3.1 million, as it bids to upgrade facilities and replace equipment.

Bad debt expense, as a percentage of patient service revenues, decreased to 2.6per centfor the year ended January 31, 2017, compared to 3.4per centthe previous year, Doctors Hospital said.This represented a decrease of $316,808, or 18.8per cent. This decrease is a result of a write-off of third-party receivables.

The number of days revenue in accounts receivable at year-end (AR Days) for fiscal 2017 stand at 51 compared with fiscal 2016 at 43 days, and net receivables as a percentage of net patient revenue increased to 14.1per centfrom 11.8per cent. These increases area result of high activity in the months of December and January, and payments not received until after year-end.

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Doctors Targets Stem Cell Therapy Launch - Bahamas Tribune