VECR Final Project
For the past six weeks, I have had a lot of fun and have learned so much. Many of the topics that we talked about were some that my biology class had barely touched on. Before, I knew minimal information about cancer but now I have a broader idea of what cancer is, what it can do, and ways we can treat it. In VECR we mostly focused on different types of leukemia, specifically Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) and CAR T-cell immunotherapy. CARs are genetically modified t-cells to express special receptors that help destroy cancer cells that evade the immune system. Some topics we also talked about are our ethics and we debated ethical issues regarding Covid19. The talks I will remember the most are the talks about actual cases and the patient's personal experiences. We had a case study about cancer survivor Kristen K. and her battle with ALL, she was treated with the CAR T-cell immunotherapy that we've been studying. Another story we listened to was Dr. Keith Eaton’s, who was also diagnosed with leukemia and was one of the first people to be treated with the CAR T-cells. Both Kristen and Dr. Eaton went into remission because of this groundbreaking treatment. Both of their stories stand out to me because cancer survivors and patients inspire me so much, the cancer survivors I personally know inspired my passion for cancer research and are why I applied to this program in the first place.
A News story written by Diane Mapes that I find really interesting is about Drs. Cyrus Ghajar and Stanley Riddell’s team’s, and how they are researching how to Target Metastatic Breast Cancer with CAR T-Cell Immunotherapy. Ghajar’s team focused on disseminated tumor cells (DTCs), these tumor cells can remain dormant in breast cancer patients for years after treatment for an early-stage disease before returning as metastatic cancer. Once DCTs “wake up” years later, the cells spread throughout the body producing tumors. DTCs are able to hide from the immune system by reducing their production of HLA protein, which are necessary to alert the immune system of danger. Riddell’s team specializes in designing CAR T-cells, they think it is possible to engineer CAR T-cells that will be able to kill the DCTs. When the CARs are infused and active, they will patrol the body for places that contain DCTs and kill the cells (hopefully without any toxicity anywhere else). This research is important because it will help prevent possible relapses of cancer, specifically metastatic cancer. I personally emailed Dr. Cyrus Ghajar with a few of my own questions. I first asked how long he has been working/researching with metastatic cancers? He said, “Technically since graduate school, since I worked a bit on melanoma back then. So, since ~2005 or 15 years!”. Another question I asked was, do disseminated tumor cells only occur within breast cancer patients, or are DTCs found in other cancer patients? His response was “I would presume that DTCs occur in every cancer type. There is either direct or circumstantial evidence of this for any cancer I’ve researched. Now whether these cells are dormant or not, and what exactly that entails… across cancers is a different question and one we don’t know.”.
Lastly, my experience within the Fred Hutch community has been great! I was really nervous at first, but the breakout group that I was assigned to has been a really good way to get to know mentors and students within the program and to make new friends. Overall, everyone is welcoming, kind, and helpful.
Photos:
A photo of my breakout room: The Jazzy Co2 Converters (Thanks Tabrina for spending the time to put this together!)
This is a picture of the Padlet that we used to put all our information and questions about Kristen K’s case study on.