Cell therapy is a treatment with living body cells
The new national platform DARE-NL has received a subsidy of €5.3 million from KWF Kankerbestrijding. The UMC Utrecht is the driving force behind the platform. DARE-NL will improve the availability of cell therapy and gene therapy. This will allow more patients to make use of these innovative treatments.
Cell therapy is a treatment with living body cells. Usually these are cells of the patient’s own immune system. These immune cells are removed from the blood and molecularly processed so that they can better recognize and destroy cancer cells. The patient is then given the processed cells again by infusion. Gene therapy occurs when the DNA of the immune cells is also modified.
Promising treatments do not reach the patient yet
Cell therapy and gene therapy are promising treatments. Many patients are disease-free for a longer period of time after therapy; some people even heal completely. Especially for patients who do not have many treatment options, these therapies can offer a new perspective. Despite this great promise, there are not many cell and gene therapies available to patients at this time. In Dutch there are only a few.
“With DARE-NL, more people with cancer can benefit from these innovative treatments.”
Many cell and gene therapies fail in their development and do not reach the patient. This has several causes, such as the complex effect of the therapy and its safety. What also plays a role is that knowledge and experience about the Netherlands is fragmented, that few qualified personnel have been trained and that the legislation and regulations are complicated.
A national infrastructure to make cell and gene therapy available faster
The new national platform DARE-NL is going to change this. The platform brings together all knowledge and expertise in the field of cell and gene therapy in 1 national infrastructure. DARE-NL is a knowledge network, a platform for raw materials and technologies, and it ensures that patients can make use of cell and gene therapy.
DARE-NL consists of renowned researchers from UMC Utrecht and the 7 other university medical centers, the Princess Maxima Center for pediatric oncology, the Netherlands Cancer Institute/Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Sanquin Research and Utrecht University. Tumor immunologist Dr Trudy Straetemans of UMC Utrecht is project leader and one of the initiators of the platform.
“With this joining of forces, we can make the development and production of new cell therapies and gene therapies easier and faster,” said Trudy. “This way we bridge the gap between a new idea and its clinical implementation and in the future more people with cancer can benefit from these promising treatments.”
The researchers are in the starting blocks
With the KWF subsidy, DARE-NL can start immediately. The first step is to make an inventory of already available knowledge and to set up an IT platform to be able to collect and share information. In addition, Trudy and her colleagues will work on exchanging and harmonizing materials, processes and knowledge, and on training staff.
DARE-NL is also a huge boost for the new Innovation Center for Advanced Therapies (ICAT) at UMC Utrecht. ICAT makes treatments with cell and gene therapy and other treatments from regenerative medicine faster and more available to patients. UMC Utrecht is one of the frontrunners in the field of cell and gene therapy. Developments such as DARE-NL and ICAT help to strengthen this position.
KWF report: Cell and gene therapy towards oncological clinical practice
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