Allogene Therapeutics announced Monday that preliminary results from a clinical trial demonstrate their investigational blood cancer treatment successfully lowered the likelihood of disease recurrence in patients.
The biotechnology company conducted testing on their ready-to-use CAR-T treatment in individuals diagnosed with blood cancer who still showed signs of the disease following their first course of conventional therapy.
The experimental treatment, called cema-cel, works by taking white blood cells called T-cells from healthy volunteer donors.
Scientists then modify these donor cells in laboratories to transform them into specialized cancer-fighting immune cells that can be stored and given to patients immediately when needed.
This approach represents a significant departure from existing CAR-T treatments currently on the market, which involve harvesting a patient’s own immune cells, genetically altering them in a laboratory, and then returning them to the patient several weeks later.
