A month later, the cancer was in complete remission. Within a week of starting therapy, Winkler was feeling better. “And we could do it with limited side effects.” “We were able to manipulate the immune system of patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma that had relapsed and progressed after various prior therapies,” Smith said. Together, the two anti-cancer medications block a “don’t eat me” signal that collectively protect cancer cells and activate an “eat me” signal, allowing disease-fighting immune cells (called macrophages) to engulf and kill them. The multi-center phase 1 trial, which was led by Smith, tested the combination of the established drug rituximab with an immune checkpoint inhibitor now called magrolimab. “We began treatment on the trial immediately.” “Linda was so weak from her illness that she had to be brought to our clinic in a wheelchair,” Smith said. With the help of her family, she arrived at UChicago Medicine a week later. Smith and a trial testing immunotherapy for DLBCL,” Winkler said. “My sister, who lives in Illinois, found Dr. The only hope would be to participate in a clinical trial of a new treatment. When a stem cell transplant failed to bring the cancer into remission, her doctors gave her just a few months to live. But in the fall of 2016, the disabled dietitian and Colorado resident learned the cancer had come back, and had transformed into DLBCL. She underwent several rounds of chemotherapy over the next decade. Linda Winkler was first diagnosed with a slow-growing lymphoma in 2005. “Our team works with each patient to offer the most appropriate therapy for their disease.” From a wheelchair to a hiking trail “There are several types of immunotherapy, which work in different ways,” Smith said. Smith offered them the opportunity to participate in clinical trials testing new immunotherapies for DLBCL.Ĭonsidered revolutionary in the treatment of blood cancers, immunotherapy harnesses the power of the immune system to fight cancer. I believe it will break us through to the next layer of defeating cancer.īut for patients Linda Winkler and Scott McIntyre, the lymphoma was particularly aggressive and returned after multiple therapies, including an autologous (using the patient’s own cells) stem cell transplant. Immunotherapy has been a game-changer for lymphoma patients. “But if the cancer recurs, we have several other treatments - including more chemotherapy followed by stem cell transplant - to offer to our patients.” “Our goal is to achieve cure the first time around,” Smith said. Standard treatment for DLBCL begins with a combination of five chemotherapy medications. The most common type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma is called diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). “These immunotherapies are improving the cure rate for non-Hodgkin lymphoma and helping patients live better and longer.” “It’s a pretty amazing time for lymphoma treatment,” said oncologist Sonali Smith, MD, director of the adult lymphoma program at the University of Chicago Medicine and an internationally recognized expert on therapies for the blood cancer. But now, new immunotherapies are changing the path for patients if the cancer comes back after standard treatments. Relapsed non-Hodgkin lymphoma was once a fatal disease.
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