Colorectal cancer is the 3rd most common cancer among men and women of all ages in the US and is on track to be the leading cause of cancer death in adults under 50 by 2030. The alarming rise of colorectal cancer in people younger than 50 prompted the US Preventive Services Task Force to lower the colorectal cancer screening age from 50 to 45 in 2021. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute recognizes the need for new therapies and is committed to finding more effective ways to treat colorectal cancer.
One avenue of clinical research at Dana-Farber includes a study testing a combination of two next-generation immunotherapy drugs. The phase 1 trial included patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who had already been treated with several lines of drugs, including prior immunotherapies. These patients all had tumors classified as microsatellite stable (MSS), which account for most colorectal cancers. In previous studies, first generation immunotherapies have had little effect on this type of tumor.
Another research avenue at Dana-Farber involves a phase 1 trial of a cell therapy called GCC19CAR-T. CAR-T therapy involves removing a patient’s own immune cells, called T-cells, genetically enhancing them to recognize and target the specific form of cancer, and then reinfusing the cells. While effective at treating certain blood cancers, so far, CAR-T therapies have not worked for solid tumors, such as colorectal cancer, in part because it has been extremely difficult to uniquely target tumor cells.
