CAR T-cell Therapy: It takes a village
18 October 2024
From left: Professor Michael Dickinson, Dana Wong and Dr Mark Dowling
Dana Wong’s husband was the first patient to receive commercially available CAR T-cell treatment at Peter Mac.
This week she joined Peter Mac’s CAR T-cell Preceptorship to share her story on becoming a consumer research advocate, fuelled by the strong bond she’s built with Peter Mac clinicians who treated her late husband for lymphoma.
“Professor Michael Dickinson left no stone unturned in his quest to save my husband’s life,” she says.
“I felt that I wanted to contribute to cancer research in some way after seeing everything he and the team at Peter Mac did.”
So, when Dr Mark Dowling was applying for his first Victorian Cancer Association Fellowship, he approached Dana to join his research team as the perfect candidate to offer the consumer perspective.
The application was successful and, since then, Dana has contributed to additional research projects including his new trial exploring novel ways to identify and treat people who relapse after CAR T-cell therapy.
“This new trial is close to home for me as it is something that could have potentially helped Michael,” Dana says.
“He was the first patient to receive commercially available CAR T-cell treatment at Peter Mac, but sadly his cancer returned.”
Dr Dowling says Dana is a valuable team member, with her story providing a poignant reminder of the need to find better ways to treat lymphoma.
“Dana joined us at Peter Mac for the CAR T-cell Preceptorship, to talk about her late husband’s experience of treatments and to hear our presentation on the new trial called EpLCART,” he says.
“EpLCART was conceived because despite 80 to 90 per cent of patients responding to CAR T-cell treatment, only 50 per cent achieve what we call a durable response, and I think we can do better with new treatment combinations.
“In this trial we will use a diagnostic test where we take blood samples in months one to three after CAR T-cell treatment, and we look for tumour DNA circulating in their blood. This is called ctDNA and we believe it will help us know earlier who will relapse and require more treatments.
The ctDNA analysis is conducted at Peter Mac by the Molecular Haematology team who run the only lab in Australia to perform this analysis.
“We will treat people whose disease has relapsed with a new therapy known as a bispecific antibody,” says Dr Dowling.
“Our belief is that the earlier we can treat them the better their outcome will be.”
“The ctDNA analysis will hopefully allow us to detect when the cancer returns earlier than conventional tests. This will give the bispecific treatment regimen the best chance to succeed in killing the cancer.”
Peter Mac’s Preceptorship leading the way
As leaders in the delivery of CAR-T cell therapy, Peter Mac hosted the first CAR-T cell Preceptorship this week to share knowledge and discuss some of the challenges multidisciplinary teams face when delivering this groundbreaking treatment.
Over two days, 140 healthcare professionals from across Australia and New Zealand attended the Preceptorship to improve their skills to help more patients successfully receive this new immunotherapy.
As the preceptorship highlighted – it takes a village to provide these innovative treatments, with input and collaboration from across the Parkville biomedical precinct and beyond.
Participants explored a range of key topics, including criteria for patient selection, bridging therapies used to manage patients before CAR-T infusion, and strategies for mitigating the unique side effects associated with the treatment, all with a focus on real-world application from Peter Mac experts.
The preceptorship’s aim is to foster collaboration across clinical teams across the nation, ensuring that hospitals are well-prepared to manage increases in CAR T-cell therapy capacity over the coming years.
The CAR-T Cell Therapy Preceptorship at Peter Mac is made possible through the generous support of an independent grant from Gilead Kite, reflecting a shared commitment to advancing innovative cancer care.