Unconventional γδ T cells 'the new black' in cancer therapy
A new era of cancer immunotherapy beckons as γδ T cell trials enter final stage.
The unique antitumor characteristics of γδ T cells are being put to the test in a first-of-its-kind clinical study that may pave the way to a new class of immunotherapy.
In the coming weeks, TC BioPharm will begin administering its proprietary formulation of donor-derived γδ T cells to patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) as part of a late-stage, pivotal trial designed to evaluate whether these ‘unconventional’ lymphocytes can specifically recognize cancers and rally an immune response against them — even without the addition of chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) or other types of genetic manipulation.
The trial should provide “proof of principle of whether it will feasible to use these off-the-shelf products,” says hematologist Emma Nicholson, a site investigator at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton, UK. “There’s a lot of interest in whether γδ T cells have got antitumor activity.”
Today, more than a dozen different companies are pushing ahead with γδ T cell–based therapies of their own — and so, if TC BioPharm succeeds with its therapy, many others could soon follow.
Continue reading at Nature Biotechnology.
