Melbourne researchers hope new treatment for incurable brain cancer could ‘melt tumours’

A new cancer therapy that melts tumours from within could be a breakthrough for incurable brain cancer, if it is successful in clinical trials.

A cutting-edge cancer therapy that trains our immune system to melt tumours from within could “revolutionise” treatment for an incurable brain cancer that has few other options.

Survival rates for gliomas, an aggressive tumour, have barely moved in decades, but Melbourne researchers hope a “two-in-one” therapy that “completely cured” “100 per cent” of mice during trials could change this.

WEHI Professor Misty Jenkins said many treatments that succeed in preclinical trials failed in humans, but these strong results gave her confidence.

“This therapy not only targeted and killed the cancer cells, but also triggered a long-lasting immune response preventing future tumour growth,” she said.

“We never expected a two-in-one breakthrough that could offer such lifesaving possibilities.”

The breakthrough was in CAR T cell therapy, considered the future of cancer treatment but currently limited to just a few select types, and treated adult and paediatric tumours.

The team hopes brain cancer patients can trial it within two years.

Prof Misty said radiation and chemotherapy were like using a “blunt instrument” to kill cancer, but CAR T cell therapy took “treatment to a new paradigm”.

“We can specifically target the tumour cells only and leave the healthy cells unharmed,” she said.

WEHI Professor Misty Jenkins said CAR T cell therapy took treatment to a new paradigm. Picture: Tony Gough

But in order to target the cancer, Prof Misty said they have to find a unique feature, a red flag or beacon that says “tumour over here”.

“As soon as we know what those red flags are … it’s very easy for us to design drugs for them now,” she said.

“We can take the patient’s blood out of a patient, engineer it and give them the right glasses.”

“Then the patient’s own T cells … can kill their own tumour.”

She said they had discovered a protein in the brain tumours that wasn’t “expressed in other healthy parts of the body”, so made T cells that recognise it.

“They then direct the immune system to recognise and destroy the brain tumour.”

She said their study, published in Journal of Immunotherapy of Cancer, found this protein, EphA3, was also in the blood vessels that line the tumour, so they could “melt the tumour from within”.

She said their CAR T cells were so effective they “hung around” afterwards, ready to attack returning cancer cells - like a vaccine - and prevent relapse, a potential “game-changer”.

“In the mice, when we gave them [new] brain tumours, they actually were able to also cure those brain tumours as well.”

Prof Jenkins said the study was a “significant development” and supported by the Brain Cancer Centre and Carrie Bickmore’s Beanies 4 Brain Cancer foundation.

“The potential to revolutionise brain cancer treatment – like what has been achieved for other cancers – makes this a truly exciting time,” she said.

“We stand on the brink of transforming brain cancer treatment.”

WEHI PhD student researcher Leesa Lertsumitkul was first author.

Melbourne dad Toby Ewert, 46, who was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2020, said research like this could be the reason someone gets more time with family.

“It makes a huge difference to the patient, but it probably makes a bigger difference to everyone else around them,” he said.

“Five extra years … that might be the difference in meeting grandchildren.

“But if researchers don’t get enough funding, it’ll just take longer.”