Dr. Bruce Levine gave a presentation on cancer research at Elizabethtown College Friday, April 6 at 7 p.m. The event took place in the Bowers Writers House.
Levine is the Deputy Director of Technology Innovation and Assessment for the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at the University of Pennsylvania.
Levine works within the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine/Perelman School of Medicine.
He received a Bachelor of Arts in biology from the University of Pennsylvania and a doctorate in immunology and infectious diseases from Johns Hopkins University.
Levine’s presentation centered around the CAR-T cell research he and his colleagues are currently working on. They are creating cells that can be used to fight cancer.
Before the presentation began, there was a book raffle. The book being raffled off was called “Made to Break Your Heart” by Writing Wing Fellow Richard Fellinger.
After the raffle, the presentation began. Levine used a PowerPoint to accompany his presentation.
Levine started off by explaining how the therapy works. He explained how T-cells are generated to attack tumors formed by cancer. The cells are taken from the patient’s body and modified to express a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR), which helps kill off the cancer.
“We use a disabled form of HIV to carry the genetic material,” Levine said.
Once the cells are generated, they are frozen and shipped off to hospitals. The cells are now referred to as CAR-T cells and will re-enter the body.
After explaining the method of his research, Levine introduced applications of the therapy.
He focused on a clinical trial done in 2010. The trial treated a total of three patients with lymphoblastic leukemia. The therapy worked in reducing their cancer.
One of these patients was a young girl named Emily Whitehead. The therapy ended up curing her. Her parents went on to start a foundation for her, known as the Emily Whitehead Foundation. She also was able to meet former president Barack Obama.
Despite the success of the trial, the research team was running out of funding, so they published the findings in an article, which gained widespread attention.
This lead to the request for FDA approval of the therapy. During a July meeting, the FDA unanimously voted to recommend the agency’s approval.
Patients and family members spoke at the event. One father, whose son was diagnosed with leukemia, emphasized the harmful effects of chemotherapy. He outlined the extensive treatments and hospital visits his son had to go through.
The therapy was eventually approved in 2017. The CAR-T cells are now being generated globally.
Next, Levine briefly mentioned how the activation of CAR-T cells can be mediated.
“The activation of a cell can be shut off or only activated at certain times,” Levine said.
Levine concluded his presentation by sharing lessons he learned from his research. One of them was how people react to new medical technology. They start by saying it is impossible but in the end, claim they knew it would work all along.
The event ended with a Q&A segment. One question asked was, “What are the side effects of this treatment?” Levine answered that one side effect was called cytokine release syndrome.
“This is when cells secrete a chemical messenger that causes inflammation,” Levine said.
Another question was, “Would this type of treatment work for solid tumors and not just blood cancers?” Levine responded that it is harder to attack a solid tumor.
This event was the second-to-last event of the semester being held by the Bowers Writers House.
The last event will be held Thursday, April 12 at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Author Robert Dean Lurie will discuss the lives of rock ‘n’ roll musicians and share some of his own work.
