A Europe-Wide Cell Therapy Unit To Imagine Tomorrow's Treatment Today

Brussels, 27/04/2023 – The new Hematological Cell Therapy Unit at the Jules Bordet Institute, now part of the Brussels University Hospital (H.U.B) together with the Erasmus Hospital and the Queen Fabiola University Children's ​ Hospital, is celebrating its arrival on the campus of the ULB health pole. This pioneering unit is widening its collaborations and pushing back the boundaries of cell therapy to cure more patients from all backgrounds. ​

The UTCH: pooling expertise from three institutions

The Hematological Cell Therapy Unit was created in 1981 within the Jules Bordet Institute with the aim of using highly innovative cell therapy to cure a growing number of patients. Since then and thanks to these precision therapies, the Unit has permitted major progress in treating rare cancers and orphan diseases. Pooling the skills and know-how of the hematological teams at the Brussels University Hospital, a grouping of the Jules Bordet Institute, the Erasmus Hospital and the Queen Fabiola University Children's Hospital, has served to strengthen our expertise in this field. After a first year at the new Jules Bordet Institute building, the Hematological Cell Therapy Unit has now been accredited by the National Medicines Agency for the use of modified cellular products. This major progress will make it possible to develop projects of increasingly practical implementation.

Cell transplants and cell therapy. What are they? ​

The human cells used in cell therapy have to be treated with the same care and standardisation as medicines. For the past 40 years cell therapy has been used in hematology to carry out bone marrow and stem cell transplants, that is, the transplanting of cells from which other blood cells develop (red and white corpuscles, platelets, etc.). These transplants make it possible to reconstitute a new immune system that is able to combat tumours. Cell therapy is today experiencing a genuine revolution as it expands into many other fields of medicine, such as immunotherapy to combat cancers that do not respond to chemotherapy, regenerative medicine and gene modification to cure rare diseases of the red blood corpuscles. It can also be used correct certain immune-related phenomena and to prevent the body from rejecting transplants of solid organs such as the liver or kidney. Treatment with Cart-T cells, which is the modification of white blood cells to recognise cancer cells, is also a promising form of therapy that could be produced locally. A breakthrough made possible thanks to the support of the Association Jules Bordet.

At the heart of the process: research to create tomorrow's treatments

The Hematological Cell Therapy Unit is the central link in a chain that begins with a conversation in the doctor's surgery when the patient discusses the treatment options. Upstream, there are sessions lasting several hours at an apheresis unit dedicated to collecting cells using very specific techniques. Downstream, the patient spends between several days and several weeks at a transplantation unit, the duration depending on the preparations required prior to treatment. Every day, the Cell Therapy Unit and Clinical Research work in close cooperation with the Institute laboratories, the campus laboratories and pharmaceutical partners to imagine and test tomorrow's treatments. ​

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ABOUT THE JULES BORDET INSTITUTE 

An integrated multidisciplinary centre and unique in Belgium, the Jules Bordet Institute is an autonomous hospital dedicated exclusively to cancerous diseases. ​ ​

For the past 80 years the Jules Bordet Institute has been offering its patients leading-edge diagnostic and therapeutic strategies in the prevention, screening and active treatment of cancer. The Institute pursues three missions: care, research and teaching. The Institution's international reputation attracts leading experts in the field of cancer. Its spirit of innovation has enabled it to participate in developing and discovering major new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies with the aim of bringing the benefits to the patient as quickly as possible. ​

In May 2018 the Jules Bordet Institute was officially awarded, for the second time, OECI (Organisation of European Cancer Institutes) accreditation and certification as a 'Comprehensive Cancer Centre', a quality label reserved for multidisciplinary cancer care institutions that include research and training. ​ ​ The Jules Bordet Institute is the only Comprehensive Cancer Centre accredited by the OECI in Belgium.

On 28 November 2021 the Jules Bordet Institute opened its new building on the ULB Anderlecht campus with 80,000 m² fully dedicated to leading-edge cancer care, research and training, as well as focusing on patient well-being. It offers 250 hospitalisation beds and 43 day hospitalisation beds. ​

The Jules Bordet Institute is also a part of the H.U.B., the Brussels University Hospital, which brings together the Erasmus Hospital, the Jules Bordet Institute and the HUDERF. This university hospital group of international renown guarantees, in particular thanks to these new investments, high quality care accessible to all and excellence in research and teaching. ​

www.bordet.be

ABOUT THE ASSOCIATION JULES BORDET

For more than 50 years cancer research at the Bordet Institute has been inseparable from the Association Jules Bordet (formerly "les Amis de l'Institut"). As the Institute's principal private donor, in the past 50 years this non-profit association has donated more than 100 million euros to fund hundreds of research projects and to achieve major progress for the benefit of patients. ​

True to its mission, the Association Jules Bordet has already made available 18 million euros for the deployment of research activities at the new hospital, including almost 6 million euros to enable the Bordet Institute to acquire the 1.5 Tesla MRI-Linac and the simulation MRI. ​

To find out more about the Association Jules Bordet, visit the website at web www.association-jules-bordet.be

OVER DE AFDELING CELTHERAPIE (UTCH)

De afdeling Celtherapie (UTCH) heeft in haar korte bestaan al meermaals pionierswerk geleverd: bij de eerste haplo-identieke transplantaties, de eerste cytaferese-eenheden in België, de eerste accreditaties voor navelstrengbloedbanken, de eerste protocollen voor kinderen, ... Dankzij de verhuis naar New Bordet, de investeringen van het Jules Bordet Instituut en de steun van de Association Jules Bordet heeft de afdeling Celtherapie (UTCH - ‘Unité de Thérapie Cellulaire Hématologie’) de mogelijkheid om haar platform verder te ontwikkelen. De afdeling Celtherapie geniet reeds de JACIE-accreditatie maar mikt ook op internationale GMP-kwalificaties om het spectrum van mogelijkheden ten gunste van de patiënten nog te verruimen. De afdeling Celtherapie biedt ook expertise die onmisbaar is voor implementering en ontwikkeling van innovatieve behandelingen voor de patiënten van de drie ziekenhuizen die samen het H.U.B (Academisch Ziekenhuis Brussel) vormen, evenals de patiënten van het ULB-netwerk, zowel inzake cellulaire immuuntherapie als in gentherapie. Dit is dankzij haar internationale partnerschappen mogelijk voor volwassenen maar ook voor kinderen, op een intensievere manier en met effectieve, beveiligde protocollen.