By Nancy Lapid
May 1 (Reuters) – We also report on a new use for artificial intelligence that could help eliminate some racial inequities in heart disease diagnoses.
MODIFIED T-CELL THERAPY MAY AVOID NEED FOR CHEMOTHERAPY
A modified type of CAR-T cell therapy may spare blood cancer patients from the need for toxic chemotherapy that is usually given in advance, an early-stage trial suggests.
CAR-T cell therapy involves immune cells called T cells. They are harvested from the patient’s blood, modified to produce a protein that targets the cancer and multiplied until there are millions of them, and then reinfused into the patient. Toxic chemotherapy drugs are typically given in advance, to suppress the immune system and boost the effect of the CAR-T cells.
The modified version tested in a Phase 1 trial used a specific type of T cell known as T memory stem cells that can renew themselves, last for years, and differentiate into many other T cell subsets.
For the study, one group of patients with a variety of blood cancers who had already been unsuccessfully treated with bone marrow transplants were re-infused with the T memory stem cells. The others received standard CAR-T cell infusions, a therapy itself only about a decade old. No one received chemotherapy beforehand.
Complete response rates in which the cancer became undetectable were 45% in the T stem cell group compared with 10% in the standard cohort. Overall response rates were statistically similar in the two groups, the researchers reported in Cell.
“Seeing patients achieve complete responses at (low) doses… without chemotherapy preconditioning, validates years of preclinical work and opens a new chapter in CAR-T cell design,” study leader Luca Gattinoni of the Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy in Regensburg, Germany said in a statement.
The CAR-modified T memory stem cells multiplied faster and functioned longer than standard CAR-T cells, even though the standard cohort received a median of 290 million modified cells versus 66 million in the memory stem cell group.
The median time to adverse events or disease progression was also similar, at 3.3 months in the standard CAR-T cell cohort and 4.9 months in the CAR-T stem cell cohort. Four T stem cell recipients went more than two years without disease progression.
Patients in the memory stem cell group also had lower rates of a common and potentially serious inflammatory reaction triggered when CAR-T cells become overactive in the body, the researchers said.
FINGER-CUFF WITH AI IMPROVES DIAGNOSIS OF HEART VALVE PROBLEM IN BLACK PATIENTS
A finger-cuff device with an artificial intelligence algorithm can accurately detect moderate-to-severe aortic stenosis, a life-threatening heart valve condition, in Black patients who have historically been underdiagnosed with the disease, researchers found.
Aortic stenosis can be fatal if left untreated. The symptoms – such as fatigue, shortness of breath, and dizziness – are often confused with normal signs of aging, resulting in delayed diagnosis and treatment. Older Black Americans are less often diagnosed with the condition, but they are more likely than other groups to die from it.
The AI algorithm, which analyzes blood flow signals captured via a simple finger cuff, was highly effective in identifying moderate-to-severe AS in Black patients, researchers reported at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions meeting in Montreal.
A total of 346 participants with and without AS took part in the test of the Acumen IQ cuff technology from Edwards Lifesciences. The air-filled cuff is placed around the finger to continuously measure the patient’s pulse and pressure in the arteries.
The algorithm performed well across different ages, genders, and races, with no bias observed, researchers said. It correctly detected 90.5% of moderate-to-severe AS cases in the overall patient population and 100% of cases in Black patients.
“Our findings give us hope for communities that are more likely to experience limitations to care,” study leader Dr. Pedro Engel Gonzalez of Henry Ford Health in Detroit said in a statement.
The researchers say the finger cuff is an affordable, easily deployable screening method that doesn’t require specialized cardiology settings.
“Something as simple as a finger cuff and an algorithm can help improve early diagnoses and get patients the care that they need,” Gonzalez said.
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(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; additional reported by Shawana Alleyne-Morris; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
