EBV T-Cells Treat Nasopharyngeal Cancer

Cancer researchers have successfully treated patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) by infusing them with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-specific cytotoxic T-cell lines raised from cells taken from the patients themselves.

Investigators at Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, TX, USA) worked with a group of 10 people with NPC. These patients were treated with cytotoxic T-cell lines specific for EBV that had been prepared from their own white blood cells.

Results published in the March 1, 2005, issue of Blood revealed that 19 to 27 months after infusion of the cytotoxic T-cells (CTLs), four patients treated in remission from locally advanced disease remained disease-free. Of six patients with refractory disease prior to treatment, two had complete responses and remained in remission over 11 to 23 months after treatment; one had a partial remission that persisted for 12 months; one has had stable disease for more than 14 months; and two had no response. All the patients tolerated the CTLs, although one developed increased swelling at the site of pre-existing disease.

"Radiation and chemotherapy, the traditional treatments for nasopharyngeal carcinoma, frequently fail and can cause severe long-term side effects,” said senior author Dr. Helen Heslop, professor of medicine and pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. "There is a compelling need for therapies that can improve disease-free survival without severe toxicity. This study demonstrates that virus-specific T cells show remarkable activity in some patients with this cancer and this may lead to new treatments for nasopharyngeal carcinoma.”