The Perseus Foundation
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T Cell Therapy overview
WHAT IS T CELL THERAPY FOR B CELL LYMPHOMA IN DOGS?
T cell therapy refers to a type of cancer treatment that harnesses the power of the immune system to help in the combat against cancer. In the case of B cell lymphoma, immune cells are collected, selected, expanded and activated to ignite an immune attack on the cancer cells. Recruiting the patients’ own T cells to attack the tumor is a revolutionary approach to combat lymphoma.
HOW CAN WE HELP YOUR PET?
If your pet has been diagnosed with B cell lymphoma and you are looking for an alternative to chemotherapy or a synergistic treatment to use with chemotherapy, adoptive cell transfer might be a good choice. Adoptive immunotherapy is best used after the first round of induction chemotherapy while the patient is still in remission. It can also be used after rescue chemotherapy, if your pet has relapsed after the initial chemotherapy. It is essential that the patient is in clinical remission when the therapy is started.
WHAT IS THE PROCESS?
Once it has been established that your dog has met the inclusion criteria of having B cell lymphoma and is in remission, the activated T cell therapy can begin.
- Step 1: Your veterinarian will submit a blood sample from your pet to our laboratory.
- Step 2: Once the blood arrives, the T cells are extracted and started in culture in order to activate and expand the number of tumor-specific T lymphocytes.
- Step 3: The process of growing the T cells in culture can generally take up to three weeks and sometimes longer. You will be given an order number so you can check the status throughout the process.
- Step 4: When the cells are getting close to being maximally expanded, your pet will receive a conditioning dose of oral chemotherapy.
- Step 5: The activated lymphocytes are shipped overnight to your regular veterinarian and they are infused at the veterinary hospital. Your pet will stay for a few hours afterward to monitor for any adverse reaction associated with the infusion.
- Step 6: A second culture will be generated and sent out approximately 4-7 days after the first infusion, and the dose of chemotherapy will not be administered with the second infusion.
FOR VETERINARIANS
Welcome to our website. We would like to introduce you to the treatment for canine B cell lymphoma that Aurelius Biotherapeutics has been working on for the past decade. They are using autologous T cells from a peripheral blood sample, isolating the T cells, selecting and growing the cells to increase the numbers exponentially and to activate them to be responsive to the antigens presented by the tumor cells.
If you and your client decide to utilize the T cell therapy, it requires that you send Aurelius Biotherapeutics a 20ml blood sample collected (purple top tubes), shipped overnight, chilled, but not frozen. They will isolate the T cells and grow them under specific culture conditions that will select the cells most responsive to the tumor antigens. After 14-21 days, the culture will be maximally expanded and will be shipped back overnight where it will need be infused within 1-2 hours of receiving it. With the first infusion only, the patient will receive an oral dose of cyclophosphamide to prepare for the T cell infusion.
Please call Aurelius Biotherapeutics so they can answer any questions and explain the process in greater detail.