Move towards the practical application of a new immunotherapy "CAR-T (Ka tea) cell therapy" to remove immune cells from the body of a cancer patient and genetically manipulate it to raise the offensive power is full-scale. On April 24, Nagoya University Hospital applied for clinical research on regenerative medicine to the subcommittee of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare for patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia without other treatment, and was accepted.
It is expected to become a new treatment for cancer patients who could not be saved until the treatment ceased.
Recognize markers of lymphocytes that became cancer on immune cells called patients' own T cells, and return them to the body with the function of continuing to attack the cancer. It is said that effects will be obtained by a single infusion. Even if the medicine of the same mechanism approved in the United States (such as Kimuria under the trade name Kimuria) is expensive as 40 to 50 million yen, attention is gaining attention.
The plan approved this time was jointly developed by Nagai University and Shinshu Univ. Based on proprietary technology devised by Professor Yozo Nakazawa of Shinshu University. We aim to drastically reduce treatment costs.
In Japan, self-goverment doctor's university has started clinical research etc. in collaboration with Takara Bio. Those that are approved in the United States and treatment methods of self-goverment doctors use viruses for genetic manipulation . However, do not use a virus in the name of the one that was approved this time. According to Takahashi Yoshiyuki and Professor Nagai, there is a possibility that the cost of safety measures and facility maintenance caused by handling viruses can be reduced to less than 1 to 15 times.
First of 12 patients in Nagai University, we will look at the safety and effects such as the extent of side effects.