Correspondence recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine describes an exciting case study of a three-year-old boy with liver cancer. The patient had a tumor in the left lobe of his liver, which had involved two sections, as well as confirmed lung metastasis and suspected bone metastasis.
The patient underwent three lines of chemotherapy and had surgery to remove the primary tumor in the liver and two lung masses. Following these treatments, the patient experienced a rapid recurrence, including the growth of a new, large lung metastasis.
The patient then enrolled in a clinical trial (NCT04715191). The study evaluates a novel chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell approach. CAR T cell therapy involves removing a patient’s T cells, a subset of immune cells responsible for killing tumors. Once extracted, the T cells undergo special engineering in a highly controlled laboratory setting. Depending on the cancer being targeted, CAR T cells receive a specialized receptor that attaches to a protein expressed on cancer cells.
The study uses CAR T cells derived from an antibody called Glypican-3 (GPC3) that recognizes a protein found on pediatric liver tumors. Researchers adde...