Michael Evans, PhD

Funded by the Constellation Gold Network Distributors

Although cancer immunotherapies are beneficial for many patients, about half of patients fail to respond to treatment or may only respond for a short time.  Identifying which patients are benefitting from treatment is an important goal, as non-responders are subjected to needless treatment and deprived of potentially beneficial alternative therapies.  To address this challenge, we have developed a new PET scan to identify which patients are experiencing a tumor remission rapidly after the start of treatment.  We will first evaluate patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that are receiving CAR T cell therapy.  If our imaging technology successfully identifies patients that are responding to treatment, we expect it could also help patients with other types of cancer that are receiving immunotherapies.  Another long term goal will be to test if our imaging technology can help physicians understand if new immunotherapies in clinical trials can eliminate tumors. 

Location: UCSF/Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center - California
Proposal: Measuring granzyme biochemistry with PET to predict CAR T cell antitumor cytotoxicity
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