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Immunotherapy Is Changing the Odds Against Cancer

Using healthy cells to fight cancer

CAR-T therapy, developed by Penn Medicine, offers the world’s first gene-based cancer therapy. It is a treatment that trains healthy cells to hunt down and eliminate cancer cells – making what was unthinkable yesterday into a reality today.

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Our FDA-Approved CAR-T Cell Therapy

With the discovery of the first gene therapy to be approved by the FDA, Penn Medicine is leading the world in immunotherapy research. Our researchers are working relentlessly to realize the full potential of this innovative approach: reprogramming the body’s own immune cells to seek and destroy every last cancer cell.

One way that we’re doing this is through an immunotherapy treatment option called CAR-T cell therapy. A personalized cellular therapy, it teaches the body’s immune systems to recognize and kill cancer cells.

CAR-T cell therapy has become a powerful addition to Penn’s cancer-fighting arsenal of surgery, targeted therapies, and precision radiation treatments. We have treated nearly 500 blood cancer patients in CAR-T clinical trials.

For more information, call 215-316-5127 or request a call-back today.

Dr. Bruce Levine, Bill Ludwig, Darla Ludwig, and Dr. Carl June

The Breakthrough Started with Bill

For 10 years, Bill Ludwig lived with an enemy determined to take his life: chronic lymphocytic leukemia or CLL, a cancer that starts in the bone marrow. He was given one more weapon to try before he was out of options: a clinical trial using CAR-T cell immunotherapy. 

Bill became the first person to participate in the clinical trial, and seven years later, its success has led to FDA approval of the personalized cellular therapy and countless lives saved.

Read more about Bill

Interview with CAR-T Pioneer, Dr. June

Carl June, MD, is one of the pioneers of immunotherapy research, and he leads the team responsible for the historic CAR-T cell therapy FDA approval.

Listen to him discuss the journey that led to the first FDA approval of CAR-T cell therapy and how he believes cancer will be treated in the future.

Carl June with employees celebration FDA approval of CAR-T therapy at the Perelman Center

Additional Cutting-Edge Immunotherapy Treatments at Penn

Our dynamic research program is always growing. In addition to CAR-T cell therapy, we focus on other types of immunotherapy research, such as vaccine therapy and checkpoint inhibitors.

Personalized Cell Therapy

Dr. Porter at work

What Is Personalized Cellular Therapy?

CAR-T therapies transform your immune T cells, so they’re better able to target and destroy cancer cells. 

Currently, CAR-T cell therapies are approved to treat patients with leukemia. In addition, a growing number of immunotherapy clinical trials are in place to test this groundbreaking approach on other cancers like lymphoma, multiple myeloma, and for solid tumors, through trials in glioblastoma, mesothelioma, and ovarian and pancreatic cancer. Other CAR trials at Penn are exploring the technique for prostate cancer, melanoma, and triple-negative breast cancer.

Vaccine Therapy

Personalized cellular vaccine

Penn’s pioneering cancer vaccines aim to cure cancer – or stop it from happening in the first place. 

Current studies focus on pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, head and neck cancers, and recurrent breast cancers.

Learn more about vaccine therapy

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Checkpoint Inhibitors

Lynn Schuctor posing for Checkpoint inhibitors

Immune checkpoint inhibitors are drugs that help differentiate healthy cells from cancer cells. They disable the cancer cells which allow the immune system to do its job.

These drugs have been used to treat melanoma and lung cancer, and are being tested in other cancers, including ovarian cancer.

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Interview with CAR-T Pioneer, Dr. June

Carl June, MD, is one of the pioneers of immunotherapy research, and he leads the team responsible for the historic CAR-T cell therapy FDA approval. Listen to him discuss the journey that led to the first FDA approval of CAR-T cell therapy and how he believes cancer will be treated in the future.

Donate to Support Immunotherapy Research

Our success with CAR-T cell therapy is all thanks to the help we’ve received from our partners, researchers, philanthropists, and fellow cancer visionaries. Donate today, so we can continue creating immunotherapy treatments to put more and more people in remission.

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