Giving Compass' Take:

• Jake Siegel reports that a small immunotherapy trial successfully prevented 12 high-risk acute myeloid leukemia from relapsing, suggesting the modified T-cells could be a way to prevent cancer reoccurrence. 

• How can funders work to advance this type of research? Do you have the resources to support researchers tackling this question? 

• Learn how to find and fund scientific research. 

he statistics are grim: For patients with high-risk acute myeloid leukemia, more than 60% will relapse within two years of a bone marrow transplant. The return of their cancer is the leading cause of death for these patients.

But they also observed significant variation in how sensitive the modified T-cell receptors were to WT1. That sparked a hunt for a T-cell receptor with an exceptionally strong affinity for the protein. The researchers screened cells from many healthy donors before finding one receptor that was especially "sticky" for WT1. Using the sticky receptor as a blueprint, the team could insert genetic instructions for it into other T cells, enabling them to make this anti-WT1 receptor.

Those findings contrast with outcomes in a cohort of similar patients who received transplants around the same time but did not receive engineered T cells. In this comparison group of 88 patients, 46% relapsed.

The trial was small and non-randomized, noted Dr. Aude Chapuis, one of the study’s leaders, and it was limited to very sick patients. But the researchers are encouraged by the results.

“These patients don’t have any options when it comes to preventing relapse, but here we feel we have a signal,” Chapuis said. “We’re very excited to pursue it further.”

Read the full article about preventing Leukemia relapse by Jake Siegel at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.