NEWS BRIEFING: Revolutionary blood cancer treatment CAR T-cell therapy shows first signs of fighting solid tumours too

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-07-03 01:00

Australia; VIC; WA

Colourised scanning electron micrograph of a T-cell. Credit: NIAID

*BRIEFING RECORDING AVAILABLE* Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is an emerging immunotherapy which can cure patients with aggressive blood cancers, but it has not proven effective against solid tumours, which account for 90% of all cancers. However, researchers at Peter Mac say tests of their new technique using modified CAR T-cells show it has the potential to treat many common types of cancer, including breast, colon and ovarian cancer. Cure rates observed in their tests on mice with solid tumours were close to 100%, the team says. Join us for this online media briefing, when the experts will discuss their findings and answer journalists' questions.

Media release

From: Australian Science Media Centre

NEWS BRIEFING: Revolutionary blood cancer treatment CAR T-cell therapy shows first signs of fighting solid tumours too

Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is an emerging immunotherapy which can cure patients with aggressive blood cancers who have exhausted all other treatment options. But it has not proven effective against solid tumours, which account for 90% of all cancers, until now.

In new research led by Peter Mac scientists, gene editing techniques were used to 'armour' CAR T-cells to produce additional proteins, enabling them to target cancer cells in solid tumours successfully. The team says their tests suggest these modified CAR T-cells have the potential to treat many common types of cancer, including breast, colon and ovarian cancer. Cure rates in their tests on mice with solid tumours were close to 100%.

The researchers have overcome two major hurdles preventing CAR T-cells from being an effective treatment for solid tumours. Previously, armoured CAR T-cells damaged healthy body cells as well as tumour cells. Targeting them to attack cells in tumours also proved tricky because - unlike blood cancer cells – cells in solid tumours lack uniformity, meaning there is no common target.

The team overcame these issues by identifying two areas of DNA that were activated in CAR T-cells once inside a tumour. They used these to program the CAR T-cells to release anti-cancer proteins, called cytokines, only inside the tumour. This is a critical first step to enabling CAR T-cell therapy to revolutionise treatment of solid cancers, as it has for blood cancer.

Join us for this online briefing to hear from the Peter Mac experts behind the research.

Speakers:

Associate Professor Paul Beavis is Co-Head of the Cancer Immunology Program at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Professor Phil Darcy is Co-Head of the Cancer Immunology Program at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

Date: Wed 02 July 2025
Start Time: 10:00 AEST
Duration: Approx 45 min
Venue: Online - Zoom

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Research Springer Nature, Web page The URL will go live after the embargo ends

Journal/
conference: Nature

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, The University of Western Australia, The Kids Research Institute Australia, Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute, La Trobe University, The University of Melbourne, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Monash University

Funder: This work was funded by a program grant, an ideas grant and a Synergy grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC; grants 1132373, 2026555 and 2012454) and a National Breast Cancer Foundation project grant (IIRS-23-006). A.X.Y.C. was supported by an Australian Government research training program scholarship and a Peter MacCallum Cancer Foundation postgraduate scholarship. K.M.Y. was supported by a University of Melbourne research scholarship. J.Lai was supported by a Cancer Research Institute Irvington postdoctoral fellowship (#CRI 3530). P.A.B. is a CRI Lloyd J. Old STAR (CRI5578) and was supported by a Victorian Cancer Agency Mid-Career fellowship (2021–24). I.G.H. was supported by a Victorian Cancer Agency Early Career fellowship (ECRF20017). P.K.D. was supported by an NHMRC Senior Research fellowship (APP1136680). The Beavis laboratory was funded by a US Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program Breakthrough Award Level 1 (#BC200025). We acknowledge the consumer representatives K. Gill, M. Rear and G. Sissing for contributions to the study and research direction of the laboratory.

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