Advanced Car T cell therapy study receives 20 million NOK

MATRIX congratulates Jon Amund Kyte at Oslo University Hospital on receiving 20 million NOK from the national program for clinical treatment research in the specialist health service (KLINBEFORSK). The Kyte group is awarded funding for a project entitled “CAR-T cell therapy targeting Ewing Sarcoma”. Altogether, five national clinical treatment studies were awarded 97 million NOK through this call.

MATRIX is very happy that Kyte is now being awarded funding for a STEAP1 CAR-T cell therapy study. This study is well in line with the Centre’s aim to extend the lives and improve the quality of life of patients with hard-to-treat cancers, and the study will have a broad national involvement. Kyte and his team members have developed a specific CAR that targets the protein STEAP1. This protein is expressed in about 90% of all prostate cancers and subsets of other cancers, including non-small cell lung cancer, bladder cancer, Ewing sarcoma, breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, glioblastoma, and ovarian cancer. Moreover, STEAP1 is highly expressed in metastatic disease, and the STEAP1 CAR-T therefore offers hope for a potent therapy for patients without other effective treatment options.

This project, now funded by KLINBEFORSK, focuses on cell therapy for patients with Ewing sarcoma, a rare form of cancer that most often occurs in the skeleton. Ewing sarcoma occurs most often in children and young adults (5-25 years), and 5-10 new cases are diagnosed in Norway each year.

Jon Amund Kyte is thrilled that his project will now receive funding and says that this gives his team the opportunity to take a big and demanding leap from animal testing to clinical trials. Furthermore, this allows them to test out a new and interesting treatment principle for young patients with a serious disease. The project will involve hospitals and scientific environments in all health regions, and patients from all over the country will be recruited.

Kyte is an oncologist and has broad expertise in clinical studies. In addition to heading the Department of Clinical Cancer Research and his own research group, JonAmund Kyte is also in the management team of MATRIX as well as leading workpackage 4 in the Centre, which will establish a clinical trial engine. This support function will contribute to make the initiation of new clinical trials more efficient.

KLINBEORSK funds national clinical treatment studies with partners in all health regions. Thus, this program contributes to realizing the goals in the National Action Plan for Clinical Studies 2021-2025, that more patients should be able to take part in trials of new and promising treatments. Projects that receive grants from this program must facilitate the inclusion of patients from all over the country in the study.