Funding hope for the holidays: Make your end-of-year gift to ACGT.

As we approach the year′s end, we invite you to consider the profound effect a holiday season gift can have on the landscape of cancer treatment and the hope it can bring to people affected by cancer.

There are approximately 17 million people in the U.S. who are living with cancer. For many of them, standard treatment options such as chemotherapy and radiation are not enough to defeat their diseases. They need new options, and ACGT is the first and only nonprofit organization to focus explicitly on funding the exciting field of cell and gene therapy, which harnesses the power of your immune system to destroy cancer.

While the National Institutes of Health and other funding agencies play crucial roles in advancing novel research, there exists a critical gap between the initial scientific discovery and running the exciting clinical trials where unmet funding jeopardizes the progression of transformative ideas. ACGT is filling this gap by funding crucial research — as explained here by ACGT Research Fellow E. Antonio Chiocca, MD, PhD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Your year-end gift is a catalyst to help propel this potentially groundbreaking science forward, providing hope for a brighter future — one where people can fight back against cancer with the help of powerful immunotherapies.

Every dollar you contribute this holiday season becomes an investment in pioneering research, driving progress that extends from the laboratory to the clinic where they can help people who are bravely fighting their cancer.

Make your year-end gift to ACGT today!

A look back at 2023 for cell and gene therapy.

Critical research in 2023 took another step forward in progressing the science of cancer cell and gene therapy, and ACGT was part of a multitude of achievements.

Here are some of our alliance’s accomplishments this year:

• ACGT awarded important grants for promising brain cancer research, including one for a pediatric clinical trial.
• We brought together scientists, biotech leaders, and other thought-leaders to ACGT Summit 2023 to share ideas on advancing the field of cell and gene therapy.
• Swim Across America-Fairfield County held its 17th-annual Open Water Swim, which raised more than $400,000 to benefit ACGT’s mission to fund cell and gene therapy research.
• More than 10 years after the start of a CAR T-cell therapy clinical trial that resulted from ACGT funding, some of the participants are now considered “cured” of their cancer.

Read more about these stories and all the other highlights from 2023 in our blog.

ACGT Research Fellow leads encouraging brain cancer study.

ACGT Research Fellow E. Antonio Chiocca, MD, PhD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, led a promising clinical trial using an oncolytic virus for people with an aggressive brain tumor. This clinical trial was the result of grant funding Dr. Chiocca received from ACGT.

Oncolytic viruses are engineered viruses that infect cancer cells and cause them to die. The virus’ activity can activate the immune system and bring T cells to the location of the tumor.

According to a press release from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the virus developed by Dr. Chiocca helped extend survival for people with recurrent glioblastoma, meaning the cancer returned after previous treatment. The treatment was especially beneficial for people whose immune systems had pre-existing antibodies for the virus used in the trial: an oncolytic herpes simplex virus. Approximately 66% of the study participants had pre-existing antibodies.

Cell and gene therapy highlights from SITC 2023.

The 2023 Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Annual Meeting (SITC 2023) was held Nov. 3-5 in San Diego, California. This was the 38th year of the meeting and, each year, progress in cancer cell and gene therapy continues to be an expanding — and exciting — focus of the event.

A highlight of the conference was the induction of ACGT Scientific Advisory Council member and Research Fellow Dr. Crystal Mackall into the Academy of Immuno-Oncology, one of the society’s most prestigious honors. 

SITC 2023 also saw the launch of a new biotech initiative to expedite immuno-oncology therapies for patients. By bringing biotech companies into the conversation directly with academic researchers, SITC hopes to translate research into clinical trials and collaborations faster. 

Collaboration is a critical part of ACGT’s mission, and it was the highlight at the annual ACGT SITC luncheon. Attendees included Dr. Mackall and other world experts such as: Drs. Carl June, Christine Brown and Hideho Okada; biotech and pharmaceutical leaders from BMS, Takeda, Genentech, Candel, Replay, Turnstone, Calidi and MiNK; and researchers from leading institutions including the University of California, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the University of Pennsylvania, Moffit Cancer Center, the City of Hope and more.

Nonprofit allies of ACGT that attended the luncheon included the Cancer Research Institute, the Lustgarten Foundation, the Melanoma Research Alliance, the Mark Foundation, the CLL Society and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. The event was a who’s-who in cancer cell and gene therapy and serves as a precursor to ACGT’s upcoming Summit 2024 in New York scheduled for next March.

This year’s lunch speakers included ACGT Scientific Advisory Council Chair Michael T. Lotze, MD, of the University of Pittsburgh, who presented the ongoing ACGT-funded research into tumor-infiltrating gamma delta T cells for pancreatic cancer treatment, and ACGT Research Fellow Yvonne Chen, PhD, of UCLA, who presented her ACGT-funded research into multi-pronged CAR T-cell therapies for cancer. 

The lunch also spotlighted ACGT Alliance Partner Cellares. John Tomtishen, Vice President of Operations, presented a brief overview of how Cellares is a leader in developing and operating integrated technologies for cell therapy manufacturing to meet the total patient demand for cell therapies globally – ensuring that patients can access cell therapies when they need them.

Overall, the advancements in the field of cancer cell and gene therapy continue to shine at the SITC Annual Meeting. Approximately 215 cell therapy abstracts were presented during the meeting, including updates on 47 ongoing cell and gene therapy clinical trials. ACGT is proud of our Scientific Advisory Councill members and Research Fellows who presented at SITC and demonstrated the power of cancer cell and gene therapy in changing the face of cancer treatment.

ACGT Research Fellows presenting at SITC 2023

• Greg Delgoffe, PhD, the University of Pittsburgh
• Daniel Powell, PhD, the University of Pennsylvania
• Yvonne Chen, PhD, UCLA
• Brent Hanks, MD, PhD, Duke University

• Hideho Okada, MD, PhD, the University of California, San Francisco

ACGT Scientific Advisory Council members presenting at SITC 2023

• Christine Brown, PhD, City of Hope
• Carl June, MD, the University of Pennsylvania
• Michael T. Lotze, MD, the University of Pittsburgh
• Crystal Mackall, MD, Stanford University
  

In the news

The latest from around the cancer cell and gene therapy research world.

• CAR-T cell therapies infused into the brain were effective in shrinking tumors in two glioblastoma studies.
• Candel Therapeutics announced initial positive interim data from a phase 2 clinical trial of CAN-2409, a viral immunotherapy to treat people with non-metastatic pancreatic cancer.
• Carisma Therapeutics announced FDA clearance of IND application for CT-0525, a novel HER2-targeting CAR-monocyte therapy. CT-0525 is the first CAR-monocyte therapy to be evaluated in humans with solid tumors. Carisma expects to initiate a phase 1 study in the coming months and to begin treating patients in the first half of 2024.