Advances in genetic analysis, bone marrow transplants and cellular therapies have helped the leukemia specialist at the OSUCCC – James attain better outcomes for patients with blood cancers. “When a patient comes in, we get a sample from their bone marrow to know the genetics of their leukemia,” said Dr. Sumithira Vasu. “We want to know what is causing the leukemia to grow, and cause so much damage, and these genetics help us decide is this leukemia likely to be cured with chemo alone or does it need a bone marrow transplant … or cellular therapy.” In this episode Vasu explains the history and advances that have been made in bone marrow transplants, including the drugs that greatly reduce the effects of Graft-versus-host disease that plagued early transplants. New, cellular therapies, such as chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR T-Cell therapy) have shown great promise and the OSUCCC – James is a national leader in this game-changing treatment. “We take stem cells out of the body of a patient or a donor, send them to the lab and super charge them [through genetic modification] and then put them back in the patient’s body,” Vasu explained. These new super-charged T cells found in the body’s immune system can now better detect, target and kill the cancer cells in the blood. These super-charged T cells hunt for CD19, a protein that binds itself to the outside of cancer cells and has tricked the immune system into leaving them alone. “Now, because of the gene modification, they recognize the CD19,” Vasu said. The OSUCCC – James was one of a small group of comprehensive cancer centers that conducted the first clinical trials using CAR T-Cell therapy. And now, Vasu and her colleagues are among the leaders in the next step in the promising process. In the past, the bone marrow taken from patients was sent to a lab across the country for the genetic kick start. “Now, we are one of only a handful of labs in the United States that have the capability of manufacturing these cells in our own lab,” Vasu said, adding OSUCCC – James researchers have also identified two other targets in leukemia cells to attack: CD20 and CD22.