Kite immunotherapy drug helps blood cancer patients in study
Kite Pharma Inc on Monday said its experimental CAR T-cell therapy, which helps the immune system fight cancer, was highly effective in treating aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma, although two deaths were related to the drug, according to interim data from a midstage trial.
Shares of Kite, which had been halted before the release of the news, rose 11 percent when trading resumed.
-
UCLA study finds why some cancers stop responding to immunotherapy
-
Researchers probe possible link between breast implants, rare form of lymphoma
-
Immunotherapy drug sustains father of 5 living with stage 4 bladder cancer
Some 76 percent of patients taking the drug, called KTE-C19, showed significant tumor shrinkage, including 47 percent who had no remaining signs of cancer at least three months after receiving the treatment, Kite said.
CAR T-cell drugs are made by genetically altering a patients’ own T-cells to add a component of antibodies that makes them better able to spot and kill cancer cells.