BioTransplant Announces Advances in Cancer Therapy at European Bone Marrow Transplant Annual Meeting
CHARLESTOWN, Mass., April 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- BioTransplant Incorporated (Nasdaq: BTRN - news) presented significant developments in the use of its proprietary Eligix(TM) TCell Separation Systems at the European Bone Marrow Transplant Annual Meeting held in Montreux, Switzerland on March 22-26, 2002. Several scientific presentations revealed the potential of the Eligix Systems in the reduction of graft-vs-host disease (GVHD).
``BioTransplant's CD8 depletion system is receiving increasing recognition as we continue to demonstrate clinical value in the area of cancer therapy,'' commented Elliot Lebowitz, Ph.D., CEO of BioTransplant. ``The ability to remove the T cells implicated in GVHD while allowing the patient's immune system to recover represents an advancement in the treatment of cancer patients.''
At the conference, scientists made a number of presentations highlighting the potential of BioTransplant's proprietary Eligix(TM) TCell Separation System in reducing GVHD and in purging tumor cells, including the following:
-- Hematopoietic Stem Cells For Tolerance Induction.
BioTransplant's collaborator, Megan Sykes, M.D., Director of the Bone
Marrow Transplantation Section of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)
and Professor of Surgery and Medicine at Harvard Medical School,
delivered an address entitled "Hematopoietic Stem Cells for Tolerance
Induction" at the plenary session on organ transplantation.
BioTransplant and MGH have been developing strategies for the
induction of donor-specific tolerance through hematopoietic stem cell
transplantation, which BioTransplant expects will enable successful
organ allografting without the need for chronic immunosuppressive
therapy.
-- Reduction of Graft-vs-Host Disease.
Scientists from BioTransplant presented research designed to reduce
GVHD, which is triggered by the white blood cell CD8+ T lymphocyte.
In preclinical studies using the Eligix Separation System, high levels
of CD8+ T cells were selectively depleted, while the immune cells and
stem cells that are necessary to repopulate into the different blood
cells, which the body needs, were preserved.
In addition to these presentations, Gambro BCT, which markets the
Eligix System in Europe, sponsored a symposium at the meeting entitled
"Enhancing Patient Outcomes through Graft Engineering." The session,
chaired by Dr. Charles Craddock of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in
Birmingham, UK, focused on strategies in stem cell transplantation and
donor leukocyte infusions.
* CD8+ Depletion of Allogeneic Stem Cells.
Dr. Robert Soiffer, Clinical Director of the Hematologic
Oncology Center and the Co-Director of the Adult
Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Program at the Dana
Farber Cancer Institute, presented results that suggested that CD8 depletion of allogeneic stem cells may be performed
simply and effectively without impairing engraftment using
the Eligix CD8 HDM System.
* Success in Purging Tumor Cells.
Dr. Francesco Bertolini of the European Institute of Oncology
in Milan discussed the positive effects of purging tumor
cells from antilogous bone marrow or peripheral blood stem
cell harvests to eliminate the tumor cells that can cause
relapse. Negative depletion techniques such as the Eligix(TM)
BCell HDM Separation System have been shown to specifically
purge CD19 and CD20 cells while retaining both stem cells and
other accessory cells in the product.
-- Performance of Eligix(TM) TCell Separation System in Donor Leukocyte
Infusion.
Dr. Kerry Atkinson of the American Red Cross and New York Presbyterian
Hospital presented recent results suggesting that T cell depletion
using anti-CD8 antibody may retain the graft vs leukemia effect and
simultaneously decrease GVHD disease compared to conventional
hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Dr. Mike Watts of the
Hematology Department at University College London Hospital described
the performance of the Eligix(TM) TCell Separation System to deplete
CD8 cells from Donor Leukocyte Infusion (DLI). The increase in demand
for DLI dose preparations has put a strain on collection, processing
and cryopreservation resources; the Eligix Cell Separation System was
found to be simple to use, reducing the total processing time to under
two hours, and provides another level of sophistication in cell
therapy. |
