CAR therapy for Multiple Myeloma

Multiple Myeloma (MM) is a cancer of a type of white blood cell called a plasma cell. MM is a disease of older people. Patients with MM develop bone fractures, pain, infections and kidney failure due to this cancer. Although it can be controled for a period, MM is currently incurable. T-cells are the part of our immune system which directly kill infected cells. They can be easily taken from a blood sample and grown in the laboratory. Using genetic engineering tools, these T-cells can be “re-programmed” so that a patient’s own T-cells recognize and kill cancer cells. This can be achieved by introducing a gene for an artificial protein called a chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR for short, into a patient’s T-cells. While T-cells normally ignore cancer cells, with this modification they attack cancer cells with the same vigour and determination as they would naturally attack virus infections. Recent clinical data leave little doubt that CAR T-cell therapy will be game-changer in cancer therapy. We have developed a CAR which targets MM cells and with this proposal plan to test the effectiveness of a patient's own T-cells engineered with this CAR.