News and events
News and events, including a plain English summary of the challenges of CAR T-cell therapy addressed in the ALLCAR19 clinical study for adults with B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.
New CAR T-cell therapy ALLCAR19 shows promise as stand-alone treatment
This plain English summary explains challenges of CAR T-cell therapy addressed in the ALLCAR19 first-in-human clinical study for adults with B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (B-ALL), study results and next steps.
While CAR T therapy is very effective for some patients, current CAR T-cell treatments have limitations. In the ALLCAR19 study we addressed two main problems of CAR-T therapy in adults with relapsed B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia as there is no licensed treatment in this age group for this type of cancer.
As both scientists and doctors, we are delighted with the results; they are important because they show the new CD19 CAR design allows for the safe treatment of CAR T-Cell therapy to adult patients with relapsed B-ALL. Moreover, this treatment may allow patients to have long-term remissions with no other treatment.
Working with trial managers and patient and public partners
Improving Patient Information Sheets: Learnings from a workshop
Ten BTRU Patient and Public Research Panel members worked with Trial Managers from the Cancer Research UK UCL Cancer Trials Centre to improve Patient Information Sheets.
Research Communication: Involve patients and carers in the conversation
In our recent blog post we wrote with patients, cares and advocates about the benefits of communicating research and top tips on how to do this successfully.
New CAR T-cell therapy offers hope for blood cancer patients
Our BTRU Directors Claire Roddie and Karl Peggs are developing new treatments for blood cancers. New treatment has fewer ‘toxic’ side effects and may target and kill cancer cells for longer, a study at UCLH has found. This offers new hope to adult patients with relapsed B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia for which there is currently no approved curative therapy available. Patients typically have further chemotherapy and the prognosis is poor.
UCL Hospitals (UCLH) Magazine Issue 16, 2022
A new CAR T-cell therapy developed by scientists at UCL has fewer ‘toxic’ side effects and may target and kill cancer cells for longer, a study at UCLH has found.
Second generation of CAR T-cell therapy trialled in patients
A new CAR T-cell therapy developed by scientists at UCL has fewer ‘toxic’ side-effects and is more durable, targeting and killing cancer cells for longer, concludes a Phase 1 clinical trial.
Patients benefit from revolutionary cancer treatment
Cancer specialists say a new form of personalised treatment is producing promising results in adults with leukaemia.
Early research on a gene therapy to treat Sickle Cell Disease
On 2 September 2021, we hosted an online conversation to hear what it is like to live with Sickle Cell Disease and to talk about three potential future treatments for Sickle Cell Disease with a group of people living with or caring for someone with this condition. The event was hosted with the Sickle Cell Society and fully booked in less than a week. It included a researcher from Theme 2 in our unit, who talked about his work on a potential gene therapy, and a member of our Patient and Public Research Panel among other speakers. Read the full summary
Watch BBC2 documentary 'War in the Blood' about CAR-T therapy
The documentary portraits scientists, doctors, and first and foremost two patients and their families taking part in early CAR-T cell therapy studies. It is thanks to their bravery that CAR-T therapy is available as an NHS treatment for some blood cancers today.
Absolutely fantastic documentary. I was so overwhelmed with emotions watching this, as I have just gone through CAR-T cell therapy myself under Claire Roddie also. In clinic appointments they talk about the trials and patients that have come before you, which inevitably turn into another statistic in your head, so to be able to put a face to these brave and courageous individuals that have paved the way for research and development in this line of treatment means a great deal to me. Thank you.
Insights on including Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in Advanced Therapies
Hear insights on how Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) improves the quality, strength and relevance of advanced therapies (new medical treatments that use tissue engineering, cell and gene therapy) from our recent Therapeutic Innovation Networks (TINs) seminar jointly hosted with the Cell & Gene Therapy and Regenerative Medicine TIN. The seminar welcomed the varied perspectives of leading researchers, clinicians and patients, outlining the importance of patient perspectives in research to optimise the real-world impact.
Insights on including Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in Advanced Therapies
The Cell & Gene Therapy and Regenerative Medicine TINs presented an online event to highlight the importance of Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in translational research.
I’m a big believer that we should start to think about PPI early in the translational process, and not wait until it’s too late to engage.
Co-developing training for researchers with patients and members of the public
Read this blog post about our Patient & Public Research Panel members helping to develop a training resource for translational researchers about stakeholder engagement. Anna voices why being involved in research early matters to her as a patient and how much her experience can add to translational research.
Launch: Animation explaining Gene Therapy
Young people asking questions about gene therapy in the animation 'Gene Therapy explained: Changing out bodies' recipe to treat disease'
21 January 2021 - Join us to explore a potential new treatment, called gene therapy. Gene therapy helps to treat some inherited diseases passed on from parent to child that don’t have a treatment or cure yet. Many different gene therapies are currently in development all over the world for inherited diseases such as those that affect the ability of our blood’s immune system to fight off infections.
The animation shows Alexis and Freddie, two members of the Young Persons’ Advisory Group (YPAG) at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, asking questions to understand what gene therapy is about. All members of the group were involved in shaping the animation and they regularly work with doctors, nurses and scientists helping to improve health care research for children.
Gene Therapy explained: Changing our bodies’ recipe to treat disease
How many pairs of jeans do you have? How many genes are in your body? What are genes anyway and do you know how they can help to treat an illness?! All is explained in this brand-new animation.
Research summary: Editing DNA to produce universal T cell therapies
by Roland Preece, former PhD student in Research Theme 4
1 December 2020 - T cells are a group of white blood cells that make up an essential component of the immune system, protecting the body from bacterial and viral infections, and preventing the formation of cancers. An emerging branch of therapies referred to as T cell immunotherapies aim to harness the power of these important immune responses and redirect them towards cancer cells while avoiding the damage of healthy tissue often associated with chemotherapy. Such therapies have proven particularly successful against cancers like B cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (B-ALL) which uses the patient’s own T cells engineered in a laboratory to recognise a marker only found on B cells (CD19).
T cell immunotherapies have to be made with the patient’s own white blood cells to prevent the treatment from turning on the body of the patient and causing graft versus host disease (donated cells attacking the recipient’s body). The need to produce these therapies for each individual patient limits the wide-spread availability of this therapy as 1) it requires a centre with the expertise to make them and 2) the relatively long time to produce the therapy (~2 weeks) is not be suitable for all patients.
Read the full summary:
Successful 18-months funding extension for BTRU research
25 May 2020 - We are delighted to announce a successful 18-months funding extension for our unit at UCL and three other Blood and Transplant Research Units (BTRUs) at University of Cambridge, Newcastle and Bristol. The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has extended funding for research at all BTRUs until 31 March 2022.
Public and Patient Involvement
Read about public and patient involvement.
How to get millions in support of your funding bid
How to get millions in support of your funding bid
The UCL Translational Research Office has explored how we integrate Patient and Public Involvement in proposed research at the NIHR Blood and Transplant Research Unit at UCL, leading to novel ideas.
#MadeAtUCL - Using our own immune cells to target and kill cancer
Using our own immune cells to target and kill cancer
#MadeAtUCL is showcasing the top 100 stories of disruptive discoveries. One of them is CAR T-cell therapies, ground-breaking cancer treatments which re-programme the patient’s own immune system.
Europe's first dedicated cellular immunotherapy unit at UCL Hospital
Professor Karl Peggs (Co-Director of the NIHR BTRU at UCL) will lead the Sir Naim Dangoor Centre for Cellular Immunotherapy, an eight-bedded unit at UCL Hospital (UCLH) within the new surgery and cancer building, due to open in 2020. The research and treatment Centre will build upon the world renowned expertise and ground-breaking advances already made at UCLH to successfully treat cancer using cellular immunotherapy. This involves taking live cells from the body and genetically engineering them to kill cancer cells before re-infusing them to the patient. The establishment of this Centre will enable UCLH to focus research on advancing cellular immunotherapies.
While clinical translation of cellular immunotherapy research into blood cancers has already shown positive outcomes, more research is desperately needed. We anticipate that through this research, treatment for other types of cancer - such as skin, ovarian, liver and lung cancers - will be developed, meaning greater cancer survival rates. It is a very exciting development that could be a game changer for the treatment of cancer.
'War in the Blood' a documentary about CAR T-cell therapy
A new BBC film looks at the work of scientists at UCL and clinicians at UCLH working together on groundbreaking ‘first in-human’ immunotherapy trials.
It is an intimate, feature-length documentary following two patients through groundbreaking ‘first in-human’ trials for CAR T-cell therapy, a treatment described as the beginning of the end of cancer.
Not allowed to meet and separated by two floors of a hospital, 53-year-old Graham and 18-year old-Mahmoud are nevertheless bound together by their commitment to the treatment and their faith in the science. Terminally ill, the trial represents their only option. How do their ages and life experiences affect their physical and emotional response?
'War in the Blood', a film about treating cancer patients with CAR T cell therapy
A new BBC film looks at the work of scientists at UCL and clinicians at UCLH working together on groundbreaking ‘first in-human’ immunotherapy trials.
2 July 2019
Breakthrough cell therapies treating blood cancers
Early results from the COBALT trial and other studies show that aggressive cancers can be tamed with CAR-T therapies which re-engineer the body’s immune system to seek out and neutralise abnormal and malignant cells. Project leader Professor Karl Peggs reports:
"Our early process was very labour intensive with lots of people gowned up and working one step at a time, which meant we could not make many products and that it was costly.
"We realised that we needed to create an automated process that could be performed in closed systems without manufacturing in such a high-dependency and high-cost manufacturing environment. Our work has enabled us to reduce cost and complexity significantly, with multiple machines in a single room each capable of manufacturing a dose of cells. Our early trials taught us an awful lot and established important infrastructure. With that knowledge and processes in place, we can look at fresh ideas and new patient groups that might benefit.
"Thanks to our funders, we are now in a very good position to take other academic programmes forward, while industry partners are much keener to work with us to run big international trials and this means we get more access to new therapies for UK patients through commercial studies. The knock-on effect of our research is that manufacturing is cheaper and more efficient with far lower failure rates. Rather than treating one patient per month, we can now make multiple products and treat a lot more patients."
Improving cancer treatment is "major priority" for public
Enhancing cancer treatment is a "major priority" for the UK public, which also thinks that the NHS needs more resources to provide “excellent cancer care”, finds a new national survey led by UCL.
