Breast cancer is the most prominent cancer among women in the United States. Last year alone, there were 310,720 breast cancer diagnoses in America, with over 40,000 women succumbing to the disease.
Unfortunately, only about 32% of those diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer experience a five-year survival rate. And for those who do reach five years, the treatment process can be highly invasive, painful, and unfortunately, very expensive.
Currently, metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer is often treated with a combination of monoclonal antibodies such as trastuzumab or pertuzumab, and chemotherapy to slow the progression of the disease. While other HER2 inhibitors, in combination with chemotherapy, do show some promise, the response to these treatments is often limited.
This is why scientists are now trying to engineer immune cell-based cancer therapies, like chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies that have proven efficacy with blood cancers, for the treatment of solid tumors like breast cancer.
As noted in OncLive, “(CAR) T-cell therapy, which has revolutionized the treatment of certain hematologic malignancies, including specific types of leukemia and lymphoma, and has significantly improved response rates for these diseases. This personalized immunotherapy involves modifying a patient’s T cells, which are an integral part of the immune system, to recognize and attack cancer cells…
“CAR T-cell therapy for solid tumors… presents a set of new challenges due to tumor microenvironment and antigen heterogeneity.”
It is this set of challenges CytoMed Therapeutics (NASDAQ: GDTC) looks to overcome.
In early January, CytoMed entered a collaboration with SUNACT Cancer Institute in India to advance the use of its allogeneic gamma delta (γδ) T-cells in a Phase 2 clinical trial aimed at treating a basket of solid and blood cancers.
Of the collaboration, CytoMed’s Chairman Peter Choo said, “CytoMed’s collaboration with SUNACT is timely and complements our core focus of harnessing CytoMed’s proprietary off-the-shelf technologies to develop novel donor-derived cell-based allogeneic immunotherapies for the treatment of various cancers at affordable cost.
“We are aligned with the foresight of our partner SUNACT to provide affordable no-option cancer therapeutics that could improve patients’ quality of life.”
Should the trial prove successful, CytoMed Therapeutics looks to progress further in other clinical trials and aims to eventually offer a breakthrough product that may give new hope to solid tumor cancer patients, globally.
Read more about CytoMed’s CAR gamma delta T-cell therapies HERE
For many blood cancer patients, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies have been a life saver. This exciting and promising technology has shown to produce powerful and prolonged immune responses, often destroying the cancer cells they target.
However, the caveats of current FDA approved CAR T-cell therapies are 1) time consuming due to their “customized” nature that can take several weeks to manufacture, 2) engineered directly from the affected patients’ own cells (autologous) and 3) mostly applicable for blood cancer treatment, with a few upcoming FDA approved CAR T-cell products specific for solid cancers such as Tecelra® (soft tissue cancer) and Amtagvi® (melanoma).
Enter the allogeneic and “off the shelf” immune cell-based therapies. These therapies are based on immune cells such as T cells and natural killer (NK) cells that are manufactured from healthy donor cells, stored, and used on demand, resulting in a significant reduction in the “wait” time for cancer treatment from weeks to days.
Now, several companies are in the process of creating NK cell-based cancer therapies and, according to the American Association of Cancer Research, they’re getting close to a solution.
Senti-Biosciences, for example, recently showed several patients experiencing complete remission of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) after being treated with their CAR-NK cell-based cancer therapy platform. But Senti is not the only company diligently working on a solution.
Peter Choo, Chairman of Singapore-based CytoMed Therapeutics (NASDAQ: GDTC) said, “It is very encouraging to see these early data from Senti. It is our belief that NK cell-based cancer therapies will be the next great breakthrough in cancer therapy.
“Our company, CytoMed, is developing an iPSC-γδ NK T-cell therapy product which we hope to reveal some data on, perhaps sometime later this year, or early next. This product is engineered as an allogeneic solution, which we believe ultimately could target a wide range of cancers and could do so at a lower cost than current, more narrowly targeted and time-consuming, CAR T-cell solutions.
“We encourage the scientific community to review our technology and see why we start with iPSCs at https://w2.cytomed.sg/ipsc-gamma-delta-nkt-cell/,” he concluded.
To read more about CytoMed Therapeutics, visit HERE
Or, for a quick review of the Senti data shown in The American Journal of Managed Care®, visit HERE
The first Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell therapy (CAR T) for cancer was approved by US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on August 30, 2017. As of 2025, a total of seven CAR T-cell therapies have been FDA approved. All of which have shown strong efficacy in the fight against cancer.
Although CAR T-cell therapies have led the way in the fight against cancer, especially blood cancer, researchers believe the next great breakthrough will come from Natural Killer cell based therapies.
As STAT, a health, medicine, and life sciences publication reports “NK cells are rapid responders in the fight against cancer that can recognize and destroy tumor cells without prior training.
“Unlike most T cell therapies, which require modifying each patient’s own cells, NK cells can be sourced from healthy donors, stem cells or cord blood banks to create an off-the-shelf, scalable treatment option.
“This difference could sidestep major hurdles in cell therapy, including high costs of therapy, toxicities and manufacturing bottlenecks that leave many patients without options.”
There are now clinical evidence showing that NK cells have the capability of delivering the results of CAR T cells, but with additional benefits including:
Lower toxicity, improved accessibility and scalability, and the potential to treat a wider range of cancer types beyond blood cancer.
For this reason, among others, CytoMed Therapeutics (a Singapore-based biotech listed on the Nasdaq with ticker symbol GDTC) has developed multiple products pipeline that include NK cell-based immunotherapy.
The company’s pipeline of cellular immunotherapies is based on novel technologies to manufacture “off-the-shelf” cellular-based cancer immunotherapies from healthy doner blood.
These products include the CAR-γδ T cell technology (CTM-N2D), unmodified γδ T cell technology (CTM-GDT) and iPSC-derived γδ NKT cell technology (gdNKT).
Excitingly, the gdNKT therapy exploits the combinatorial benefits of two immune cell types; the multiple antigen recognition systems of natural killer (NK) cells, and the GVHD (graft vs host disease) resistant γδ T cells for the treatment of a broad range of solid and blood cancers.
As noted earlier, STAT says, “Unlike most T cell therapies, which require modifying each patient’s own cells, NK cells can be sourced from healthy donors, stem cells or cord blood banks to create an off-the-shelf, scalable treatment option.”
In an effort to bolster its gdNKT technology, last October CytoMed acquired the cord blood banking license and assets of LongevityBank.
See more of CytoMed’s product pipeline, HERE
Or read STAT’s coverage on NK cells, HERE
According to data compiled by the South China Morning Post, small Asian biotechs are developing cancer therapies that may cost a fraction of those of their Western counterparts, with development occurring a rapid pace.
“A decade ago, treating cancer with personalized [therapies] seemed like a $1 million gamble per patient, a therapy reserved for the ultra-rich.
But [Asian] start-ups are aiming to change that – by designing cancer therapy for a fraction of the cost and also taking on Western pharmaceutical giants in the process,” the publication said.
It is estimated that the current cost of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (CAR T-cell), which is among the most responsive and promising cancer treatments, can run well over $400,000 per patient in the United States.
Due to this high cost, patient access is very limited to those who can afford it, or whose insurance can fully cover it.
However, one Singapore-based company, CytoMed Therapeutics (NASDAQ: GDTC) believes its CAR T-cell therapies, once brought to market, can reduce patient care costs drastically.
Peter Choo, Chairman of CytoMed Therapeutics said, “In Asia, we have a unique situation where the costs of research, development and production of biopharmaceuticals are generally far less expensive than we see in the West.
“There are a number of reasons why, but we clearly have a very large advantage in these areas. Because of this I believe companies like ours, and others in Asia, will eventually produce cancer therapies that cost perhaps 99% less than those developed and produced outside of Asia.
“Of course, doing so would not only make cancer treatments far less expensive but would bring this life-saving technology to a much larger pool of patients,” he said.
The majority of CAR T-cell therapies on the market are based on manufacturing and engineering cells from the cancer patient’s blood that only target hematological malignancies, or blood cancers. However, CytoMed’s pipeline of products look to advance “off-the-shelf” based allogeneic immunotherapies by manufacturing and engineering cells from healthy blood doners to treat a broad range of cancers, including both blood cancer and solid tumors.
Furthermore, the company looks to manufacture broad-range and cost-effective immunotherapeutic products in an area of the world where the associated costs of research and development, and manufacturing are a fraction of those in the West.
To read more about CytoMed’s CAR T-cell therapies, and its product pipeline, visit HERE
Or, to read more about the data compiled in the South China Morning Post, visit HERE