Kyoto University: Transplanting iPS immune cells into cancer patients:
-Kyoto University and others start clinical trials-
Kyoto University
National Cancer Center
On November 11th, it announced that it had transplanted immune cells made from iPS cells into patients with ovarian cancer.
Cancer treatment using iPS cells:
This is the second cancer treatment using iPS cells, following teams such as Chiba University.
This time, the main purpose of the clinical trial was to investigate safety and side effects, and so far no rejection has occurred in patients.
Patients with ovarian cancer:
The patient is a female in her 50s who is undergoing a medical examination at the National Cancer Center Hospital East.
Patient has relapsed ovarian cancer,
Her cancer cells are also scattered in her peritoneum,
She had no effective treatment.
Inject iPS natural killer cells:
Kyoto University has produced 10 million natural killer cells of immune cells made from iPS cells.
It was injected into the abdominal cavity near the affected area three times in September.
We expect immune cells to attack cancer cells.
Asahi Shimbun Digital
https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASPCC528LPCCPLBJ005.html
Clinical trial starts for iPS cancer treatment
NHK WORLD-JAPAN News
Researchers in Japansay they have started a clinical trial of ovarian cancer treatment involving immune cells created from induced pluripotent stem cells, or IPS cells.
The team of researchers from the National Cancer Center Hospital East and Kyoto University’s Center for iPS Cell Research and Application
made the announcement in an online news conference on Thursday.
The iPS cells used in the treatment
are capable of developing into any kind of cell.A gene that reacts strongly to a protein unique to a certain type of ovarian cancer is inserted into iPS cells to create natural killer cells.
These NK cells
will then be injected into the ovaries of patients with this type of ovarian cancer.The team says
it does not expect the treatment to cause serious side effects because NK cells attack cancer cells but seldom affect normal ones.The team plans to conduct a clinical trial of the treatment on up to 18 patients with advanced cases of ovarian cancer that are no longer operable.
They will be administered NK cells once a week, for a maximum of four times, to determine the safety and efficacy of the treatment.
In the first case, a patient in her 50s underwent three sessions in September, and has reportedly shown no adverse reactions since then.
Dr Doi Toshihiko of the National Cancer Center Hospital East
says his team aims to confirm the safety of the therapy, and will then work out a set of rules for the storage and transportation of NK cells, as the next step toward making the treatment widely available.
In a separate development last year, another group of researchers in Japan, involving the RIKEN research institute and Chiba University,
started a clinical trial of cancer treatment using another type of immune cell — natural killer T cells, generated by iPS cells.