Apr 26th, 2023
The past 6-days have been very good. It just got better. Seattle's BrainChild 4 CAR T-Cell trial just opened yesterday, and Layla is patient #1 for kids under 12, I just got off the phone with them. The first 3 patients have to be over 12, so we'll be heading up there in July to have her blood drawn so they can separate out her T-Cells and insert everything else back into her. We'll then return home, and continue on with the Georgia trial for as long as it continues to work, all while Seattle copies her T-Cells and manufactures billions and billions of them. Then, once the time comes, which is hopefully many, MANY months down the road, and we need them, they will be primed and ready to be thawed and then infused into her to go on the attack with little time wasted. Interestingly enough, the Georgia trial, her July/August 2022 blood was tested for T-Cell response, and it was positive, a robust one, which is not surprising because that trial did completely clear her biggest, most concerning, inoperable brainstem lesion. So going from immunotherapy, to, immunotherapy? This was the plan all along, staying at the "top of the mountain."
Want a good read on it and why this trial is potentially such a big deal? Here you go:
https://pulse.seattlechildrens.org/seattle-childrens-launches-pioneering-immunotherapy-clinical-trial-targeting-four-antigens-at-the-same-time-to-combat-pediatric-brain-and-spinal-cord-tumors/
Folks don't know this but this past Fall, we received devastating news, that the CAR T trials had never had success with more than one site of disease. We thought it was our best shot, it turned out to be none of that. I asked why and was told that we have trillions of cells in us and we are manufacturing billions of T-Cells, there's only so many to go around. I said, well there's a way around that, just infuse every week for 80-weeks instead of 8 before going to once a month. But in my view, learning what I have, I said the problem isn't that, and even if so, what I just said. To me, the problem was targeting just one target at a time. Single agent drugs have not worked and now that we did a tri-fecta of radiation, immunotherapy, and low dosage chemo, we are seeing positive results across the board with Layla with her spine being most promising, especially given, that was completed first, with the brain showing hints. So multi-targets and/or techniques makes sense.
BrainChild 4 is targeting 4 targets all at once,. And pre-clinically, did they have any success with multiple sites of disease? For the first time, yes. But the translation is not always, and often isn't there from mice to humans. We know for sure Layla expresses strongly for at least 2 of the targets. There is no test for the 3rd and the 4th we did test for and she did not express for it, but the working group told me, with their FGFR inhibitor desired trial, they will not screen because half the time it goes the other way and they are wrong, false positives so to speak.
Interestingly, from the "mice lab" he told me that when there was FGFR (Fibroblast growth factor) involvement in the tumors, that responses were tremendous. Dana Faber's screen of Layla did show expression for FGFR3 and our friends in Europe, with ependymoma, from what they can tell, it is the the Fibroblasts that grows the tumors almost every time. The big pharma companies are working on solutions for those but we're a bit of a ways a way but what do I like about CAR T and immunotherapy? It hacks the immune system to kill the cancer and in theory, KEEP IT AWAY. We have two cancer squashing genes in us and many people who have cancer come back, have one or both deleted. We do have one deleted.
Thank you for all the support on the Cancer Revengers launch. Please do keep it coming and send people to the site. The Cancer Revenger bracelets should be in within 2-3 weeks. I am hoping for Mother's Day but we'll see! We are working on Cancer Revenger baseball caps, see attached. Layla LOVES the Orange, so that is getting made along with 1 or 2 other styles, likely the Dark w/Color Logo and maybe the white.
See more on the bracelets and beanies at www.cancerrevengers.com. I'll post the baseball caps for pre-order once I get the samples and confirm but once we decide on styles it'll be 3-weeks before they are in, QUICK, that's how I like things.
Gonna be a busy summer, and Layla continues to do great, even getting better and stronger week to week. And here I was thinking today was going to just be a typical boring Wednesday. Let's go Bruins and what the heck happened to the Celtics last night?