{"id":21883,"date":"2017-09-07T09:02:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-07T09:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/a-bioethicists-take-on-child-cancer-treatment-that-uses-gene-therapy-38745\/"},"modified":"2017-09-07T09:02:00","modified_gmt":"2017-09-07T09:02:00","slug":"a-bioethicists-take-on-child-cancer-treatment-that-uses-gene-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/09\/a-bioethicists-take-on-child-cancer-treatment-that-uses-gene-therapy\/","title":{"rendered":"A bioethicist’s take on child cancer treatment that uses gene therapy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

Washington D.C., Sep 7, 2017 \/ 03:02 am (CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- A genetic modification therapy designed for treating pediatric leukemia has drawn both praise and caution from a Catholic bioethicist, after recently being approved by the Food and Drug Administration.<\/p>\n

While a \u201cpromising\u201d use of gene modification technology, the treatment still has potentially deadly side effects \u2013 which could make the risks outweigh the benefits, says Fr. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D., of the National Catholic Bioethics Center.<\/p>\n

Gene therapies have garnered public attention for their potential medical significance, and because of problematic research procedures<\/strong><\/a> surrounding their development and the moral questions<\/strong><\/a> they raise.<\/p>\n

However, the new treatment, called Kymriah, is a hopeful development and a morally licit use of genetic modifications in medicine, Fr. Pacholczyk told CNA. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Because the therapy only uses matured cells from the patient, Fr. Pacholczyk explained, it does not entail the same ethical problems as other forms of gene therapy under investigation \u2013 including therapies which destroy human embryos or make modifications of cells which can be passed onto future generations. Instead, developing therapies which make \u201cgenetic changes to help our immune system do better what it is supposed to do, namely identifying and eliminating various dangers from the body, is a praiseworthy goal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the extent that side effects can be limited or controlled, the therapy appears to be very promising, with reports of high success rates in slowing or even eliminating certain childhood cancers like pediatric acute lymphoblastic lymphoblastic leukemia,\u201d Fr. Pacholczyk said.<\/p>\n

Kymriah, developed by drug company Novartis, is a highly personalized form of immunotherapy called CAR T-cell therapy. The procedure, short for \u201cChimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell Therapy,\u201d takes a person\u2019s T-cell \u2013 a kind of white blood cell \u2013 and genetically modifies it to contain a new kind of protein.<\/p>\n

This protein, called a chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR, helps detect certain kinds of cancer cells. When the body\u2019s T-cells are reintroduced to the body, they are now able to find and kill the cancer cells.<\/p>\n

The treatment is specialized to attack a kind of pediatric cancer called acute lymphoblastic lymphoblastic leukemia, or ALL. ALL is a bone marrow and blood cancer, and is one of the most common childhood cancers in the United States.<\/p>\n

According to the FDA, over 3,000 patients under the age of 20 are diagnosed with ALL each year. The treatment will be offered to patients who have not responded to other existing treatments, or those whose cancer has returned after initial treatment.<\/p>\n

Fr. Pacholczyk emphasized that there are some ethical concerns doctors and patients considering this treatment should investigate, particularly the potential for side effects the treatment can cause in some individuals.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne ethical concern raised by this therapy centers on the question of whether the risks may be greater than the benefits for particular patients,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In some patients, treatment with Kymriah can cause a severe immune response. Sometimes, when the white blood cells are rewritten, they can lead to a severe immune response called cytokine release syndrome, or CRS, when they are reintroduced. Symptoms of this syndrome can include high fever, flu symptoms, dangerously low blood pressure, and organ damage. It can also cause neurological symptoms, including swelling of the brain, which can be fatal.<\/p>\n

In light of these dangerous side effects, the FDA also approved the expansion of use of an immune suppressing drug for treatment for CRS. The drug has shown to be an effective treatment for CRS after treatment with CAR-T cells. The FDA will also require Novartis to continue monitoring Kymriah after its release for long-term side effects and other harmful side effects.<\/p>\n

With the control of the dangerous side effects, and weighing the risks of the treatment against its benefits, however, the new gene therapy looks \u201cpromising,\u201d Fr. Pacholczyk said.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington D.C., Sep 7, 2017 \/ 03:02 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- A genetic modification therapy designed for treating pediatric leukemia has drawn both praise and caution from a Catholic bioethicist, after recently being approved by the Food and Drug Administ…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\nA bioethicist's take on child cancer treatment that uses gene therapy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Washington D.C., Sep 7, 2017 \/ 03:02 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- A genetic modification therapy designed for treating pediatric leukemia has drawn both praise and caution from a Catholic bioethicist, after recently being approved by the Food and Drug Administ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/09\/a-bioethicists-take-on-child-cancer-treatment-that-uses-gene-therapy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A bioethicist's take on child cancer treatment that uses gene therapy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Washington D.C., Sep 7, 2017 \/ 03:02 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- A genetic modification therapy designed for treating pediatric leukemia has drawn both praise and caution from a Catholic bioethicist, after recently being approved by the Food and Drug Administ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/09\/a-bioethicists-take-on-child-cancer-treatment-that-uses-gene-therapy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-07T09:02:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/Child_cancer_patient_Credit_sumroeng_chinnapan_Shutterstock_CNA.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/09\/a-bioethicists-take-on-child-cancer-treatment-that-uses-gene-therapy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/09\/a-bioethicists-take-on-child-cancer-treatment-that-uses-gene-therapy\/\",\"name\":\"A bioethicist's take on child cancer treatment that uses gene therapy\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-07T09:02:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-07T09:02:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\"},\"description\":\"Washington D.C., Sep 7, 2017 \/ 03:02 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- A genetic modification therapy designed for treating pediatric leukemia has drawn both praise and caution from a Catholic bioethicist, after recently being approved by the Food and Drug Administ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/09\/a-bioethicists-take-on-child-cancer-treatment-that-uses-gene-therapy\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/09\/a-bioethicists-take-on-child-cancer-treatment-that-uses-gene-therapy\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/09\/a-bioethicists-take-on-child-cancer-treatment-that-uses-gene-therapy\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A bioethicist’s take on child cancer treatment that uses gene therapy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\",\"name\":\"CNA Daily News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"CNA Daily News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A bioethicist's take on child cancer treatment that uses gene therapy","description":"Washington D.C., Sep 7, 2017 \/ 03:02 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- A genetic modification therapy designed for treating pediatric leukemia has drawn both praise and caution from a Catholic bioethicist, after recently being approved by the Food and Drug Administ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/09\/a-bioethicists-take-on-child-cancer-treatment-that-uses-gene-therapy\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A bioethicist's take on child cancer treatment that uses gene therapy","og_description":"Washington D.C., Sep 7, 2017 \/ 03:02 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- A genetic modification therapy designed for treating pediatric leukemia has drawn both praise and caution from a Catholic bioethicist, after recently being approved by the Food and Drug Administ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/09\/a-bioethicists-take-on-child-cancer-treatment-that-uses-gene-therapy\/","og_site_name":"Catholic News","article_published_time":"2017-09-07T09:02:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/Child_cancer_patient_Credit_sumroeng_chinnapan_Shutterstock_CNA.jpg"}],"author":"CNA Daily News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"CNA Daily News","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/09\/a-bioethicists-take-on-child-cancer-treatment-that-uses-gene-therapy\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/09\/a-bioethicists-take-on-child-cancer-treatment-that-uses-gene-therapy\/","name":"A bioethicist's take on child cancer treatment that uses gene therapy","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-09-07T09:02:00+00:00","dateModified":"2017-09-07T09:02:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1"},"description":"Washington D.C., Sep 7, 2017 \/ 03:02 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- A genetic modification therapy designed for treating pediatric leukemia has drawn both praise and caution from a Catholic bioethicist, after recently being approved by the Food and Drug Administ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/09\/a-bioethicists-take-on-child-cancer-treatment-that-uses-gene-therapy\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/09\/a-bioethicists-take-on-child-cancer-treatment-that-uses-gene-therapy\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/09\/a-bioethicists-take-on-child-cancer-treatment-that-uses-gene-therapy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A bioethicist’s take on child cancer treatment that uses gene therapy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/","name":"Catholic News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1","name":"CNA Daily News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CNA Daily News"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21883\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}