AIIMS, Delhi developing low cost adaptive cellular therapy for treatment of multiple myeloma

AIIMS Delhi developing low-cost antibody-based therapy for multiple myeloma to make advanced treatments more accessible in India.

Doctors at AIIMS, Delhi are in the process of developing a low cost antibody-based adaptive cellular therapy for the treatment of multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer.

This kind of therapy is expected to make advanced treatments like CAR-T cell therapies more affordable and accessible for patients in India.

The Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is a form of adaptive cellular therapy in which a patient's T cells are isolated, genetically modified and infused back in the patients body to recognise and kill cancer cells, said Mayank Singh, Additional Professor in the Department of Medical Oncology at Dr B R Ambedkar Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital, (BRAIRCH), AIIMS.

It is based on targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) which helps to target specific tumour antigens which are found cancer cells especially in cases multiple myeloma. "So the therapy developed by the AIIMS researchers recognises BCMA as a target on multiple myeloma cells to eliminate them," Dr. Singh said.

As of now, the therapy has been tested on animal models and has shown promising outcomes, he said.

“We intend to take this CAR-T cell therapy for phase-1 clinical trials on humans in the near future to collect substantial evidence regarding its safety and efficacy. Our aim is to bring the cost of this therapy significantly down. There are other forms of CAR-T cell therapies, but the cost of these are very high,” he said.

Cancer is characterised by the uncontrolled growth of cancerous cells. Generally, all cancer cells are derived from a single cell which has undergone a sequence of mutations that has converted it into a cancerous cell and these cancerous cells are involved in different symptoms associated with cancer, Dr. Singh explained.