Can donor CAR-T cells have an impact on cancer treatment? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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CAR-T cells developed from bone marrow donors whose bone marrow had already been used to treat someone’s cancer may be able to rein in cancer recurrence, a new study finds. Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center director William Nelson says this very specific study looked at a narrow application of CAR-T cells.

Nelson: Looked at folks who had had bone marrow transplants receiving bone marrow from a different donor, we call allogeneic, but the cancer had nonetheless relapsed. So they made the CAR-T cells out of the donor bone marrow. They tailored the manufacturer of these to emphasize stem cell and memory cell properties of the T. They did not need to infuse as many of them. The side effects they didn't really see much of that at all and they persisted for a very long time.       :30

Nelson notes that such a strategy may only be employed within the context of bone marrow transplantation but may yield more insights on how to improve the development of CAR-T cells. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.