The University of Iowa Health Care Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center has started treating its second patient — the second in the state — with a cellular therapy to fight synovial sarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer that can develop around any bone or connective tissue. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Tecelra in fall 2024 as the first FDA-approved T-cell therapy, a type of cancer treatment that uses a patient’s own immune cells called T-cells, or white blood cells, to fight cancer more effectively. 

The T-cell therapy is known as an adoptive cell therapy, which works by collecting white blood cells from a patient’s body and engineering them to attack cancer cells before administering them back into the patient. 

Adaptimmune Therapeutics, a company that develops cancer treatments, was behind the T-cell therapy. In the clinical trial for the therapy, about 70 percent of patients whose tumors shrank from the therapy were alive at two years, with a possibility of long-term survival.

Gustavo Godoy Almeida, a medical oncologist at  UI Health Care, said about 20 percent of patients in the trial were alive and cancer-free at two years, an outcome rarely seen with chemotherapy alone. 

He said physicians typically wait five years before considering a patient cured.

Godoy Almeida said Tecelra offers much better results than current treatments for synovial sarcoma, which commonly use Ifosfamide — a chemotherapy drug that can kill cancer cells and suppress the immune system. 

“After Ifosfamide, we keep providing different types of chemotherapy,” he said. “But they only prolong survival, which is around 18 months for synovial sarcoma patients. They do not cure these patients. So that’s why this new treatment is a very interesting way to treat cancer patients.”

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Godoy Almeida said UIHC’s second patient to receive Tecelra therapy started high-dose chemotherapy on March 3, a process that will last for four days, followed by one day of rest and cell infusion the day after rest. 

John Rieth, a medical oncologist at  UIHC said the Adaptimmune Therapeutics’ clinical trial piqued his interest when the FDA approved the T-cell therapy in fall 2024.

“Thankfully, we were able to go talk with the company,” he said. “We were able to talk to our pharmacists here and to our fantastic cellular therapy service here to make sure that we’re able to offer the product here.”

According to the Tecelra website, there are only roughly 30 medical centers in the nation that provide Tecelra cellular therapy. The Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center is the only medical center in Iowa to provide the treatment. 

Rieth said synovial sarcoma can be found in young people. According to the National Library of Medicine, the cancer is most common when people are in their 30s, with a median age of diagnosis of 30. Rieth said Tecelra brings the possibility of prolonging patients’ lives long-term. 

“You’re not only helping to benefit patients,” he said. “It really benefits patients at the height of their life, it’s usually 30s and 40s, but it can affect even as young as 20s and teens.”

Breck Jones, the CEO of U.S. WorldMeds, the company that now manages Tecelra after it acquired Adaptimmune Therapeutics, said the goal with Tecelra is to administer the therapy to medical centers across the nation to remove logistical barriers for patients who have aggressive cancers. 

“By partnering with leading institutions across the country like the University of Iowa, it means we’re bringing life-changing therapies closer to patients who need them the most,” he said. 

Rieth said the clinical trial found that Tecelra was more effective at the beginning of cancer treatment rather than as a last resort because the immune system is not as exhausted with chemotherapy treatment, potentially shortening the overall treatment timeline for patients compared with standard chemotherapy.

Rieth said the cancer center is finding ways to help sarcoma patients outside of research. Courage Ride, a cancer center-sponsored annual bike ride that raises funds to improve the lives of those affected by sarcoma, reached a $1 million milestone in October, he said. 

“We are a big research institution,” he said. “We’re trying to find breakthroughs in whatever way we can. We’re going to move forward both in these T-cell products and other immune therapy models and in sarcoma in general.”

Rieth said three of the nation’s sarcoma specialists work for UIHC, while many centers aren’t as lucky and do not have a single sarcoma specialist. 

“This is a fantastic treatment that we can offer patients,” he said. “This goes to show that we really are one of the strongest in the nation as far as sarcoma treatment.”