Combination immunotherapy for solid tumours with oncolytic virus & cognate CAR T-cells

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Every year approximately 350,000 new cases of cancer are diagnosed in the UK. Despite modern treatments many patients cannot be cured. Recent scientific discoveries harnessing the immune system to fight cancer are transforming the lives of a small group of patients. Unfortunately, the majority of patients with advanced cancer gain minimal benefit from this approach. This project aims to test an innovative strategy that could enhance the body's ability to fight various cancers. Because the strategy is new, it is vital to test how safe and effective it is in cells grown in a dish and in mice before it is developed for use in human trials. Essentially, it is a project of two halves, using cutting-edge genetic engineering to achieve its goals. The idea is to engineer a virus that will only infect cancer cells. Once inside it is hoped that the virus can render the cancer cells susceptible to attack by killer white blood cells called T-cells. These T-cells, which form an important part of our immune system, would also be genetically engineered to seek out and kill cancer cells. The virus would also be designed to produce a chemical that can enhance the susceptibility of the tumour to immune attack. Further engineering of the T-cells may also be used to improve the way in which they can target tumours. Because of the way in which the experiments are designed, it is hoped that in the future this strategy can be applied to a very large number of patients with many different types of cancer. It is also hoped that the idea underlying the research can be further advanced by making additional changes to both the virus and the T-cell to enhance the treatment's ability to eradicate tumours.