New specialized cancer treatment program coming to Manitoba

A new program aimed at offering immunotherapy treatment closer to home to people with blood or lymphatic cancers is coming to Manitoba.

The province announced the move at a news conference Monday, saying it is spending $6.6 million to create a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell cancer therapy program at CancerCare Manitoba.

CAR-T cell cancer therapy provides immunotherapy for people with blood or lymphatic cancers, like lymphoma, that does not respond or respond well to conventional treatments, like chemotherapy.

“A program such as this will provide potentially lifesaving therapy for patients close to home with less wait time and will avoid significant amount of time away from home,” said Audrey Gordon, Manitoba’s health minister.

The province said the program will initially be available to two groups of patients – people 25 years old or younger, including children, with acute leukemia and people 18 years and older with aggressive lymphoma, if other therapies have not worked.

Doctor David Szwajcer, director of Manitoba’s blood and marrow transplant program, said CAR-T therapy collects the patient’s own T-cells and transforms them to target the patient’s cancer cells.

Once the cells are produced, the patient undergoes treatment to ensure they can tolerate the modified cells. After they have cleared that test, the modified cells are injected intravenously. The clinical team then monitors the patient over the next several weeks to ensure they don’t develop toxicity.

Szwajcer said they currently send about six to eight patients out of province every year to receive CAR-T therapy - a number researchers believe will grow in the years to come, as the therapy could potentially be used to treat a broader spectrum of cancers.

“From a research side, that’s what we’d like to be developing – more off-the-shelf, allogeneic, one-size-fits-all CAR-T therapies that could be used for other types of cancers as well,” said professor Jody Jonathon Haigh, acting co-director of the CancerCare Manitoba Research Institute.

CancerCare Manitoba president and CEO Dr. Sri Navaratnam said the program’s clinical team is already trained and in place, but some logistics need to be worked out. She predicts treatment can begin in spring.

Gordon said this approach will also help attract and retain highly skilled technicians and researchers working in the cancer therapy field. It will also save about $2.2 million in operational costs, Gordon noted.