Gene and cell therapy are providing new avenues for the treatment of cancer. One of the most exciting developments in this area is the use of gene engineering to introduce Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CAR) into T cells that reprogram them to target and kill cancer cells. There are already several FDA-approved CAR T cells therapies in the clinic that are highly effective at treating aggressive blood cancers such as B cell leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma. Scientists and oncologists in the Icahn Genomics Institute (IGI) are working together to understand how resistance can form to CAR T cell therapy, as well as other cancer immunotherapies, and creating powerful new CAR T cell therapies to treat solid organ tumors, such as lung and ovarian cancers.
The IGI is also developing ways to use RNA and DNA based therapies to target the immune system against these cancers. This includes using genomics analysis to identify shared antigens within patient tumors that can be incorporated into the design of novel cancer vaccines. The IGI is helping to pioneer novel cancer vaccines that use immunostimulatory RNA and oncolytic viruses, such as Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV), to activate innate immunity and prime anti-tumor immune responses—in situ—at the tumor site. This novel ‘in situ’ vaccine approach has already proved to be effective in inducing long-lasting tumor remissions in patients with disseminated lymphoma.