Within the next couple of weeks, the first blood samples from patients will arrive at the loading dock of Adaptimmune, a biotechnology company headqua

A Navy Yard biotech designed a first-of-its-kind therapy for rare cancer. Now, it waits for patients.

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2024-10-08 21:30:10

Within the next couple of weeks, the first blood samples from patients will arrive at the loading dock of Adaptimmune, a biotechnology company headquartered on the northeastern edge of the Navy Yard.

Their arrival will open a new chapter in medicine’s ongoing search for a therapy that converts the body’s own immune system into a cancer-killing machine.

In August, the company’s signature therapy, Tecelra, became the first approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that works by modifying a patient’s own immune cells to attack a solid tumor. Although the agency has okayed several other therapies that act in similar ways, previous treatments have been most successful in blood cancers, which represent only 10% of all cancers.

Tecelra’s approval for patients with synovial sarcoma, a rare form of cancer that strikes muscles and ligaments, represents a critical proof of concept: The engineered immune therapies that have revolutionized blood cancers can also work in solid tumors. It is also the first treatment advance in years for synovial sarcoma, a devastating cancer that is often diagnosed in people under the age of 30.

“It’s a movement of the field — and the science — forward,” said Natalia Rivera-Torres, a gene editing researcher at ChristianaCare in Delaware, who is not involved with Adaptimmune and the development of Tecelra.