A study, published in Cancer Immunology, examined the effectiveness of an immunotherapy that kills colorectal cancer tumors and prevents metastasis in mice.
Researchers from Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health used an immunotherapy called Car-T cell therapy, which effectively eliminated metastatic CRC in mice.
Car-T immunotherapy involves removing a patient's immune cells and reengineering them to target only the tumor. They then multiple the cells enmass and inject them back into the patient.
The cells specifically react to a tumor antigen called GUCY2C. The antigen is a potential biomarker and therapeutic agent.
In the study, researchers tested a human-ready version of the therapy on mice. All the mice survived with no side effects during the 75-day observation period.
They replicated the study in mice with CRC with lung metastases and discovered the therapy was equally successful. The mice survived more than 100 days with no metastases.