Biography
Helen Heslop MD is Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics and Director of the Adult Stem Cell Transplant Program in the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine. She received her medical degree at the University of Otago and undertook postgraduate training in Hematology and bone marrow transplantation at Christchurch Hospital in New Zealand and the Royal Free Hospital in London. She was on the faculty at St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis from 1991-1997 and has been at Baylor College of Medicine since 1997. Her clinical interests are in the use of alternative donors for stem cell transplantation and in augmenting anti-viral and anti-tumor immunity following such transplants. She has shown that adoptively transferred gene-marked virus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) are effective prophylaxis and treatment of EBV-lymphoma in recipients of T cell-depleted allogeneic bone marrow. Follow up studies are evaluating the efficacy of EBV specific CTLs in patients with EBV genome positive Hodgkin's disease, lymphomas after solid organ transplant and as a carrier for chimeric receptors specific for other tumors. Dr Heslop's other research interest is in using gene marking to evaluate the optimum source of hemopoietic stem cells for transplantation and gene therapy. She is a co-editor of the journal Bone Marrow Transplantation and a member of Subcommittee D Clinical Studies of the NCI.
Abstract
Immunotherapy of Cancer
The successful outcome of hemopoietic stem cell transplantation for cancer patients is often jeopardized by post-transplant complications, including relapse, secondary tumors induced by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and graft-versus-host disease. The proposed research will test several new concepts of immunotherapy or immunomodulation in children and adults undergoing hemopoietic stem cell transplantation for malignant disease or with other tumors associated with EBV. We have shown that EBV-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes can effectively treat EBV lymphomas developing after hemopoietic stem cell transplantation. The proposed studies will extend this approach to other cancers by evaluating the ability of EBV-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes to treat patients with EBV-positive Hodgkin’s disease and EBV lymphomas developing after solid organ transplantation. The hypothesis that human EBV-specific T cells, which we have shown can survive long term in patients, can be genetically modified to recognize other non-EBV-related tumors such as neuroblastoma or leukemia will also be tested. Other studies will develop methods to specifically deplete T cells, to eliminate graft-versus-host disease, from the grafts in patients receiving allogeneic hemopoietic stem cells.