Roger Williams Medical Center

Antibody-targeted cellular immunotherapy may provide a clinically effective anti-tumor response without increasing treatment-related toxicities when conventional therapies have reached there maximum benefit or are no longer effective against a patient's cancer. One approach is to recruit the patient's own anti-tumor activity by taking a small portion of the patient's T cells (cells of the immune system that fight cancer), activating them so that they multiply many times in culture, and then giving them back to the patient in order to 'boost' the patient's immune system to fight his/her cancer.

Building upon this strategy, by coating (a process we call "arming") the patient's expanded T cells with a bispecific antibody, which binds one end to the T cells and has another end that recognizes certain molecules that are on the surface of cancer cells, the patient's T cells will then be redirected to specifically target and attack cancer cells once infused back into the patient.

Bispecific antibody-based biological drugs are now just one of a growing number of strategies utilized by the Cancer Immunotherapy Program at Roger Williams Medical Center to enhance the patient's immunity against cancer. The Cancer Immunotherapy Program is built upon a translational research laboratory. Our basic and clinical laboratory team is experienced in developing, producing and testing safety and efficacy of investigational new biological therapies in preclinical research and FDA-reviewed clinical trials. Since its establishment in 1999 and enrollment of the first clinical trial patient in 2001, the Cancer Immunotherapy Program has enrolled over 40 patients in its various FDA-reviewed and RWMC Internal Review Board (IRB)-approved clinical trials.

The immunotherapy team at Roger Williams Medical center