Open Mics with Dr. Stites - Training the Immune System to Eliminate Cancer with CAR-T and CRISPR

Morning Rounds - Summary of Current Events
Maggie Reavis, R.N., infection prevention and control nurse, The University of Kansas Health System
A new CDC report is warning of a deadly fungus that is showing up more and more in the United States is called C-Auris.
There's never been a case reported in the state of Kansas, but hospitals and nursing homes need to be on the lookout. Healthy people aren't really at risk, so this is not a threat to the general public.
We're concerned about it because it is often resistant to many of the drugs that we use to treat fungal infections. It can be really challenging to identify in the laboratory, and it is capable of causing outbreaks in healthcare facilities.
According to the CDC, this has been doubling from 2020 to 2021 and almost doubling again from 2021 to 2022.
The health system is taking action to prepare for and prevent infections, including:
Partnering really closely with our laboratory to make sure that we have the technology in place to identify this type of infection when we have a patient present to our health system.
Collaborating with our public health authorities, both local and state, to make sure we are informed of any concerns for cases or patients that are transferred here from other facilities from another state that might be infected with this type of organism.
Verified that all of the cleaning agents that we use are effective at disinfecting for this and we're putting together educational materials to make sure that our nursing staff and our providers are comfortable and informed when we when we do get a patient.
Focus Topic
Katie Kopp, patient
At age 64, Katie was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s b-cell lymphoma.
Other therapies failed to treat her lymphoma, but Dr. Joseph McGuirk got her into a clinical study involving CRISPR and she is one of the very first in the world to successfully be treated with this new method.
It allows scientists to precisely cut out any strand of healthy donor DNA so it can be used by a sick patient.
A few years after this treatment, Katie remains in clinical complete remission.
Katie encourages others going through these situations to keep an open mind and a positive attitude.
Dr. Joseph McGuirk, division director of hematologic malignancies & cellular therapeutics, hematologist and medical oncologist, The University of Kansas Health System
This technology provides on-demand specialized treatments for patients as needed.
Not only is a potentially a healthier, more effective cell provided to patients, but it's something that we can access right away. We can make these CAR-T cells for hundreds of patients from a single donor.
Instead of traditional chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or surgical approaches, this allows us to take cells out of the patient's bloodstream and modify the cells, specifically T cells, engineer them genetically, expand them and infuse them back into patients.
Using the patient's own cells, we have seen complete remissions in patients -- 50 to 80 percent of them -- depending on the specific type of blood cancer.
COVID Updates
Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control, The University of Kansas Health System
A new report talks about how more people are experiencing “vaccine fatigue” in the news.
We understand that is real, but we also know that the science is changing.
As we have more information and more data, we are able to make different recommendations.
It is very important to tailor messages about vaccines to specific populations. If we're talking about COVID vaccines, it's tailoring those messages to those people who are not up to date or not fully vaccinated especially if they are at higher risk.