Kayden Addison was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 3 years old, and doctors began treating his tiny body with chemotherapy.
Despite severe side effects and a near-death experience, after two years of chemotherapy, she only needed about nine months without treatment before her cancer returned in February.
But by then, doctors had other tools.
Instead of attacking him with powerful chemotherapy, they were able to direct the treatment to his immune system, turning its specialized cells into targeting missiles to attack tumor cells. His mother, Courtney, told a Washington, D.C., audience gathered Wednesday to hear an update on advances against cancer from the American Association for Cancer Research that she had few symptoms other than a few days of nausea.
Half a century of taxpayer-funded research is yielding results for families like the Addisons of Chesapeake, Virginia. AACR points out in annual progress report.
Not only are the Addison family hopeful that their cancer nightmare might actually be over this time, but it looks like the latest treatments aren’t done yet. Kayden turns 7 next weekif you have additional health problems.
“We don’t have to sacrifice long-term side effects for the rest of our lives just to save our baby,” Addison says. “They deserve better.”
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Harnessing the immune system to fight cancer
Progress against cancer has been remarkable.
Today, more than 70% of children with cancer have long-term survival, and adult mortality rates have fallen by a third since 1991, with an estimated 3.8 million deaths due to prevention, early detection, and new treatments. Death could be avoided.
AACR President Dr. Philip Greenberg said progress has gained momentum in recent years due to advances in immunotherapy, basic tumor biology, and genetics.
Last year alone, 14 new cancer drugs received federal approval, and the use of another 12 drugs was expanded to new tumor types or stages of cancer.
“This is a period of tremendous opportunity,” said Greenberg, director of the immunology program at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
One of the biggest advances is immunotherapy. In other words, it helps a person’s own immune system fight cancer.
Ten years ago, only one so-called checkpoint inhibitor was approved to treat melanoma, a type of cancer. Checkpoint inhibitors essentially remove the brakes that cancer puts on the immune system, allowing the immune system to fight the tumor. Currently, 11 checkpoint inhibitors have been approved for 20 different tumor types.
Another type of immunotherapy called CAR-T, first approved in 2017, is currently used to treat six different forms of blood cancer, with “many more on the way.” Greenberg said in an interview after the formal press conference. In some cases, his CAR-Ts, short for chimeric antigen receptor T cells, are so good at teaching the immune system to recognize and kill cancer cells that cancers that have disappeared may never be seen again. You will not be returning.
On Thursday, Drs. Carl June of the University of Pennsylvania, who is credited with helping develop CAR-T therapy, and Michelle Sadlan of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 2024 Life Science Breakthrough Prize. Dubbed the “Oscars of Science,” the award honors “influential scientific discoveries” and carries a $3 million prize.
Now that CAR-T’s efficacy has been proven, interest has exploded, with hundreds of companies launching 1,000 trials targeting autoimmune diseases, heart disease, and even infectious diseases, as well as many types of tumors. June said Wednesday that the drug is undergoing human clinical trials.
“It’s great to see something like this happen,” said June, who has not yet decided how she will spend her prize money.
As with other cancer treatments, challenges remain.
In the case of blood cancers, there was an obvious target to train the immune system, but in other types of tumors, “dream targets” exist only on cancer cells and not on healthy cells. is difficult to find, June said. Killing them can cause unacceptable side effects. Scientists are working to find ways to be as specific as possible.
In solid tumors, CAR-T cells tire quickly and only work for short periods of time, rather than months or years as in blood cancers.
June also said the approach needs to be made cheaper and a more mechanized process to make the treatment more accessible. “They are all solvable. It’s just a matter of time,” he said. “But there have been a lot of advances in the first decade of CAR-T cells, and we’re going to see all of this resolved.”
The same mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines is also proving promising in early clinical trials for cancer, offering new ways to harness the immune system against cancer. offers the possibility of
Moderna on Wednesday announced plans to begin a late-stage study in melanoma and a mid-stage study in lung cancer with partner Merck.
Just as COVID-19 vaccines train the immune system to identify and destroy proteins on the surface of infectious viruses, Moderna says mRNA vaccines can identify proteins made by mutated cancer cells. CEO Stéphane Bancel said in an interview on Tuesday.
“What we’re coding are mutations that teach the immune system to eat them, so the immune system can eat them like Pac-Man,” he said. Ta.
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persistent challenges
These scientific advances have dramatically improved outcomes for some types of cancer. Breast cancer deaths decreased by 43% between 1989 and 2020, saving approximately 460,000 lives. Deaths from lung cancer decreased by less than 1% annually from 1995 to 2005, but decreased by 5% annually from 2014 to 2020 due to a decrease in the number of smokers associated with the development of new treatments.
But some other cancers, particularly pancreatic cancer and glioblastoma brain tumors, “still have scary five-year morbidity rates,” Greenberg said. “Things are changing. They can change, but they won’t change without continued support to accelerate investment in cancer research.”
Nearly 2 million new cases of cancer are expected to be diagnosed in the United States this year, and more than 600,000 deaths are expected. Some cancer types, such as early-onset colon, pancreatic and uterine cancers, are increasing in frequency, in part because of rising obesity rates, according to the AACR.
In 2019, American cancer patients paid more than $16 billion out-of-pocket for cancer treatment and lost an additional $5 billion in “time costs,” the AACR reported.
Disparities in care remain an ongoing problem. Greenberg particularly highlighted disparities among people living in rural areas who don’t have access to clinical trials. “In rural areas, we’re in a state where cancer progression is completely ineffective,” he said.
AACR announced on Wednesday The company will partner with cancer centers across the country to address issues such as disparities in care, clinical and basic science research, training, and public communication.
“One of the failures of the scientific community has been to communicate to all these people what the opportunities are, what the benefits are, and to foster confidence in the cancer research enterprise. ” Greenberg said. “What people need to realize is how great the opportunity is.”
cancer moonshot
President Biden has said he wants to cut cancer deaths in half within 25 years in a project called the White House Cancer Moonshot.
On Wednesday, the President’s Cancer Cabinet met to announce new actions federal agencies are taking toward that goal, as well as related efforts from the private sector. New actions include:
- An additional $240 million will be invested this year to accelerate cancer prevention, detection and treatment.
- Establishing a national health network to bring cancer clinical trials to underserved communities.
- Investments to reduce the impact of smoking and promote smoking cessation.and
- Collect more data on cancers affecting veterans and push to provide more virtual care to veterans.
The Moonshot Program is also a non-governmental organization that helps cancer patients pay for their treatment out-of-pocket, manage stress, quit smoking, reach a more diverse population with clinical trials, and help patients navigate the healthcare system. Also announced new initiatives. .
request for funds
Government support is essential for progress in cancer control, but the cancer community is concerned that Congress will continue to withhold generous funding for scientific research. From 2010 to 2019, federal funding contributed to the development of 354 of the 356 newly approved drugs, many of which targeted cancer.
On Thursday, AACR and other advocacy groups will lobby members of Congress to support continued funding for cancer research. “We hate the idea of stopping momentum,” Greenberg said.
According to AACR, funds invested in research have broader benefits. Research funded by the National Institutes of Health stimulated $97 billion in economic activity and 500,000 jobs in fiscal year 2022. “This is a really good investment. It has helped sustain the American economy,” he said.
In its report, AACR called on Congress to add $3.5 billion to the NIH budget and $2.6 billion to the National Cancer Institute’s budget, and provide predictable annual funding increases for next year.
bladder cancer patient Letha Kirkman She told the audience Thursday that she planned to spend the day lobbying “anyone who will listen to me” about advances in cancer treatment in her lifetime. “Because this is unbelievable.”
When Kirkman, 61, of Niceville, Florida, was diagnosed with cancer in 2016, he knew it was a death sentence. Because that’s what her cancer was like when she was a child.
She underwent two surgeries and standard treatments, but unfortunately they did not help.
When her cancer returned in 2018, her oncologist referred her to a gene therapy trial, which had so few side effects that she decided to start and join a tennis team during treatment. was completed. “Through all the treatments, I was able to live a full life,” Kirkman said. He has been cancer-free since then. “We all thrive because of the research we have done.”
Contact Karen Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com.
USA TODAY’s health and patient safety coverage is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare.Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial opinion.
