Heating up tumors could make CAR T therapy more effective: study
LOS ANGELES, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Heating solid tumors during Car T-cell therapy can enhance the treatment's success, a preclinical study led by scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) suggested.
Researchers of UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer found that when a heating technique called photothermal ablation was combined with the infusion of Car T cells, it suppressed melanoma tumor growth for up to 20 days in mice, according to a release of the university on Wednesday.
Among the mice that were treated with the combination, 33 percent were still tumor free after the 20-day mark, the study showed.
Car T-cell therapy has been successfully used to treat many patients with lymphoma and leukemia, but it has been less successful for treating solid tumors because the tumors have a protective microenvironment. This makes it harder for the Car T cells to break into the tumor and keep the T cells activated.
In order to test whether combining Car T therapy with photothermal therapy could overcome that obstacle, UCLA researchers tested a mild hyperthermia about 40 degrees Celsius to see if it could help enhance the Car T cells to better attack the tumor.
They applied the technique in mice that were injected with human melanoma tumors. A photothermal agent was injected into the tumors and then irradiated with the laser to heat them. Then, Car T cells were injected intravenously.
They found that raising the temperature of the laser to about 40 degrees Celsius helped expand blood vessels associated with the tumor, enhancing T cell growth.
By enhancing the power of Car T cell therapy, the technique could eventually improve the prognosis for people with hard-to-treat solid tumors, according to the study.
The researchers will continue testing the strategy in animals to optimize the heating duration and temperature before determining whether it can be tested on humans.
The research has been published in the journal Advanced Materials.
