New vaccine to help leukaemia patients in UAE

Dubai - The treatment is available in the form of an injection and is currently being used in the UK's National Health Service.

A breakthrough vaccine that will help treat leukemia patients will be available in the UAE soon.
The treatment is available in the form of an injection and is currently being used in the UK's National Health Service.
Lymphoma and Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) are the most prevalent cancers in the UAE and the most aggressive.
The World Health Organisation's (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said in a 2018 report that 238 cases of leukaemia were reported in the country, which is among the highest.
Ghulam Mufti, professor of haematological oncology at King's College Hospital London who was in Dubai recently, told Khaleej Times that the latest advancement in the treatment of blood cancers (two of the most debilitating blood cancers - B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and high-grade B-cell lymphoma) is being done through CAR-T cell therapy.
"It is a cellular therapy which acts like a vaccine," he said. In the treatment of leukaemia, cellular therapy aims to improve the immune system's ability to seek out and fight leukaemia cells, for those patients who relapse.
"To create this vaccine, immune cells (T cells) from a patient's blood are manipulated within the laboratory and made to adopt genes that effectively recognise and destroy the cancer cells," he explained.
Since vaccines are considered a protection against infectious diseases and leukemia is a blood disorder, so how does a vaccine work in this case?
"This is what makes this treatment exciting. One way is to take the cancer cells and put genes into them so that the immune system recognises them. We are then able to give it to patients in the form of a vaccine," he said.
"This is happening as a human clinical trial in King's and it is the only clinical trial of its type in the world. Sixteen patients are participating in the trial, and an additional 36 are going to participate. Of our 16 patients, who have myelod leukemia, it has been very good, they tolerated the treatment very well," said Mufti.
"Our 16 patients are now being watched, because remission can happen in longer term i.e. in five to six years from now. There are techniques now where we can detect one leukemia cell out of a million cells. So, we are watching them and they are responding. However, this kind of vaccine will not be available for "general public" for another two to three years. But the CAR-T and modifications of CAR-T are absolutely here and available," he said.
Currently the CAR-T therapy is for patients who have relapsed after chemotherapy, where T cells are taken from the immune system of the patient (autologous), and genes are put into these cells so that they are able to recognise leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma cells.
Afterwards, the cells are expanded (make a lot of them), which is all done in the lab, and takes about two to three weeks. The cells are then given back to the patient where these cells look at the cancer cells and then expand and kill them.
The autologous CAR-T cell therapy is successful in 60-70 per cent of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which is one of the most aggressive forms. "The advantage for patients in the UAE is that only the first phase of the treatment will be outside the UAE and require the patient to travel to the UK. The rest of the treatment will be in the UAE, which will bring down the cost significantly," said Mufti.
"All these tests can be done locally rather than having to travel back to the UK," he added.
He also said that the disadvantage with autologous is that cells are taken from the patient and treated, which takes a while and is expensive. "With the allogeneic, you don't have that problem, you can take the CAR-T cells from anyone. These T cells are then educated to fight against leukaemia and lymphoma cells and do the same job," he added.
"The treatment, which is a targeted immunotherapy, is available in the form of autologous CAR-T Cell therapy. CAR-T cells are generally created through the patient's own blood cells, and you put genes into these cells so that they are able to recognise leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma cells," said Mufti.
"However, there is another form of treatment, allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy, which is currently in clinical trials at King's, where the CAR-T cells are taken from healthy patients," he added.
asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.com