Karolinska ATMP Center behind breakthrough cancer treatment

A new form of CAR T-cell therapy has recently made headlines after a patient in a clinical trial became cancer-free in record time. The treatment was developed at the Karolinska ATMP Center, a collaboration between Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital, and manufactured by its affiliated production unit, Vecura.

CAR-T is a cutting-edge immunotherapy in which a patient’s own T-cells are reprogrammed to recognise and attack cancer cells. The method has shown particularly strong results in aggressive lymphoma and is also approved for blood and bone marrow cancers.

The patient who became cancer-free in record time after receiving treatment at Uppsala University Hospital was given a new form of CAR T-cell therapy currently undergoing clinical trials. This new approach targets a different molecule than previous CAR-T therapies, making it possible to help patients for whom earlier treatments have stopped working.

Despite its success, the treatment still faces challenges. It’s complex, expensive, and requires sophisticated manufacturing. CAR-T also needs further development to be effective against solid tumours. But Knut Steffensen, director of Karolinska ATMP Center, remains optimistic.

“With continued research, technological progress and collaboration between academia and healthcare, I’m convinced CAR-T will become a routine treatment for an increasing number of cancer types. We’re already seeing how this technology is transforming outcomes for patients with hard-to-treat lymphoma, and the potential is huge for solid tumours and autoimmune conditions as well,” he says.

Karolinska ATMP Center brings together operations that have spent years building the advanced infrastructure needed to take new therapies from research to clinical use. 

This includes a pre-GMP facility, where the process development for the current treatment took place, and Vecura, a GMP-certified unit responsible for production.

Expanding research to meet future needs

Karolinska ATMP Center is now broadening its research to tackle both medical and technical hurdles, with the goal of making CAR-T technology available for more diseases. At the same time, new, more cost-effective ways of delivering the treatment are being developed.

Karolinska ATMP Center and ATMP Center Uppsala have recently launched a strategic partnership aimed at accelerating the development of advanced therapies. By pooling expertise and resources, the centres will jointly drive research, production and clinical application—with the shared goal of giving more patients access to pioneering treatments.

This article was first published on 6 November by Kaolinska Institutet.