Dr. Sergio Giralt presented at the 2017 BMT Tandem Meetings about new treatments for preventing relapse in blood cancers. One of those treatments is lomab-B, a radiolabeled antibody drug targeted against CD45. The way lomab-B works is by helping to prepare patients for hematopoietic stem cell transplants, by conditioning the body and increasing the antitumor effect of the transplant.

An article in Nature (February 22) by Dr. Sadelain and his team, found that using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing creates more powerful CAR T cells. Sadelain and team showed that CRISPR can deliver the CAR gene to a specific location within the T cell genome, thus the CAR T cells are more powerful and can work longer.

Recent research conducted at UCSF, found that imbalances in mutated KRAS could be one of the reasons why certain individuals are more vulnerable or resistant to specific drugs. Computational Biologist, Dr. Barry Taylor, led the genetic analysis of the various advanced cancers in the study. He developed algorithms and software to analyze the relative amounts of normal and mutant KRAS in tumor cells from biopsy samples.

Laura Dohrmann of Crockett, California participated at the San Francisco Cycle for Survival event last month. Dohrmann was diagnosed with an extremely rare soft-tissue cancer, leimysarcoma (LMS) in 2012. After seeing more than 20 doctors and specialists, she flew to MSK to receive treatment. After having most of her thigh removed, and several rounds of chemo and radiation, today she is learning to walk again and has no evidence of disease. She proudly raised a few thousand dollars this year for Cycle for Survival, and plans to return next year as a team captain. While she was unable to ride this year as her legs weren’t strong enough, she’s eagerly waiting for 2018. “This is life-changing for my journey,” said Dohrmann. “I’ll be riding for those who can’t. I’ll be riding for them because I can.”