Lehigh Valley Topper Cancer Institute has added a center geared toward individualized cancer care.
The Peter and Odete Kelly Center for Personalized Cancer Immunotherapy, which Lehigh Valley Health Network announced Tuesday afternoon, will connect physicians, scientists and researchers together to develop and test immunotherapies.
“I went into oncology because — I was born in India — my grandmother died of uterine cancer when I was 6, and this is in the ’60s, and a lot of mystery at that time,” said Dr. Suresh Nair, physician in chief of the Topper Cancer Institute. “And I think we’re in a much, much better place, and we’re going to be a better place thanks to the Kelly Center.”
Personalized immunotherapy includes antibody therapy, cytokine therapy, cellular therapy and therapeutic vaccines. Traditional cancer treatments are adjusted to the individual patient and their tumor, but personalized immunotherapies take the individualization to a new level.
Instead of targeting tumor cells, this therapy targets the immune system. Benefits include increasing the curability of metastatic cancer, minimizing collateral damage to healthy tissues and reducing side effects of traditional treatments.
For example, chimeric antigen receptor T-cell, or CAR-T therapy, which was recently introduced at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest following LVHN’s merger with Jefferson Health, works by taking T-cells, a type of white blood cell, from a patient and genetically modifying them so that they target the tumor and initiate the body’s immune system response to attack it.
A vaccine for pancreatic cancer, offered by LVHN through a trial last year, worked by introducing dead tumor cells containing mutations into the body, which helps the immune system produce more T-cells with the goal of stimulating an immune response.
Nair said that the center and the funding provided for it will allow the Institute to participate in and contribute more to research and trials.
Peter Kelly, the retired executive vice president and general manager of NXP Semiconductors, said he and wife Odete were introduced to Nair several years ago, which led to their donation.
“His [Nair’s] approach to medicine is driven by deep technical competence and never-ending enthusiasm for medicine and more importantly his kindness and desire to help people,” Kelly said. “Odete and I would like to make sure that he continues to be able to develop this capability.”
