Andras Attila Heczey, M.D.
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Andras Attila Heczey, M.D.
Associate Professor
Positions
- Associate Professor
-
Pediatrics-Oncology
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX US
- Member
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Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas United States
Addresses
- Texas Children's Hospital, Clinical Care Center (Clinic)
-
6701 Fannin St., 14th floor
Houston, TX 77030
United States
Phone: (832) 822-4242
Education
- Fellowship at Baylor College Of Medicine Affiliate Hospitals
- 01/2012 - Houston, TX United States
- Residency at Children's Hospital Of Los Angeles
- 01/2009 - Los Angeles, CA United States
- M.D. from Semmelweis Medical University
- 09/2002 - Budapest, Budapest Hungary
Certifications
- General Pediatrics
- American Board of Pediatrics
- Pediatric Hematology and Oncology
- American Board of Pediatrics
Professional Interests
- Tumor immunotherapy
- Genetic engineering
Professional Statement
Dr. Andras Heczey is a physician-scientist and full-time faculty in the Department of Pediatrics of Baylor College of Medicine, Section of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology. He is a member of the multidisciplinary solid tumor team and the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy (CAGT).His research focuses on developing novel treatments for patients with solid tumors by redirecting the immune system to attack cancer cells.
Dr. Heczey has studied and published the first adoptive immunotherapy approach utilizing Natural Killer T cells genetically modified to attack neuroblastoma. This approach is tested in the GINAKIT2 Phase 1 clinical trial in children with relapsed or refractory high-risk neuroblastoma.
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03294954
As the Director of the Liver Tumor Center, Dr. Heczey has developed unique strategies to target hepatoblastoma and hepatocellular carcinoma with genetically engineered T lymphocytes. This approach was successfully broadened to other solid cancers (in adults and children)
Active projects in the lab focus on synthetic immunology to successfully reprogram the immunesystem to recognize and completely eliminate cancer cells.
The Heczey Lab's ultimate goal is to develop new genetic engineering strategies to reprogram cells inside the human body, in situ.
Websites
Videos
Selected Publications
- Liu D, Song L, Wei J, Courtney AN, Gao X, Marinova E, Guo L, Heczey A, Asgharzadeh S, Kim E, Dotti G, Metelitsa LS "IL-15 protects NKT cells from inhibition by tumor-associated macrophages and enhances antimetastatic activity.." J. Clin. Invest.. 2012 Jun 1;122(6):2221-33. Pubmed PMID: 22565311
- "Advances in chimeric antigen receptor immunotherapy for neuroblastoma." ; Pubmed PMID: 24333408
- Heczey A, Liu D, Tian G, Courtney AN, Wei J, Marinova E, Gao X, Guo L, Yvon E, Hicks J, Liu H, Dotti G, Metelitsa LS "Invariant NKT cells with chimeric antigen receptor provide a novel platform for safe and effective cancer immunotherapy." Blood.; Pubmed PMID: 25049283
- Heczey A, Louis CU, Savoldo B, Dakhova O, Durett A, Grilley B, Liu H, Wu MF, Mei Z, Gee A, Mehta B, Zhang H, Mahmood N, Tashiro H, Heslop HE, Dotti G, Rooney CM, Brenner MK "CAR T Cells Administered in Combination with Lymphodepletion and PD-1 Inhibition to Patients with Neuroblastoma." Mol Ther. 2017 Jun 8; Pubmed PMID: 28602436
- Li W, Guo L, Rathi P, Marinova E, Gao X, Wu MF, Liu H, Dotti G, Gottschalk S, Metelitsa LS, Heczey A1 "Redirecting T Cells to Glypican-3 with 4-1BB Zeta Chimeric Antigen Receptors Results in Th1 Polarization and Potent Antitumor Activity." Hum Gene Ther. 2017 May 28; Pubmed PMID: 27530312
- Batra SA, Rathi P, Guo L, Courtney AN, Fleurence J, Balzeau J, Shaik RS, Nguyen TP, Wu MF, Bulsara S, Mamonkin M, Metelitsa LS, Heczey A. "Glypican-3-specific CAR T cells co-expressing IL15 and IL21 have superior expansion and antitumor activity against hepatocellular carcinoma." Canc Imm Res. 2020 Jan 17; Pubmed PMID: 31953246
- Xu X, Huang W, Heczey A, Liu D, Guo L, Wood M, Jin J, Courtney AN, Liu B, Di Pierro EJ, Hicks J, Barragan GA, Ngai H, Chen Y, Savoldo B, Dotti G, Metelitsa LS5 "NKT Cells Coexpressing a GD2-Specific Chimeric Antigen Receptor and IL15 Show Enhanced In Vivo Persistence and Antitumor Activity against Neuroblastoma.." Clin Canc Res. 2019 Dec 1; Pubmed PMID: 31484667
- Heczey A "Alliance of the Titans: An Effective Combination of a TKI with CAR T Cells." 2019 Aug 7; Pubmed PMID: 31337604
- Haines K, Sarabia SF, Alvarez KR, Tomlinson G, Vasudevan S, Heczey A, Roy A, Finegold MJ, Parsons DW, Plon SE, López-Terrada D "Characterization of pediatric hepatocellular carcinoma reveals genomic heterogeneity and diverse signaling pathway activation.." Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2019 Jul; Pubmed PMID: 30977242
- Sumazin P, Chen Y, Treviño LR, Sarabia SF, Hampton OA, Patel K, Mistretta TA, Zorman B, Thompson P, Heczey A, Comerford S, Wheeler DA, Chintagumpala M, Meyers R, Rakheja D, Finegold MJ, Tomlinson G, Parsons DW, López-Terrada D "Genomic analysis of hepatoblastoma identifies distinct molecular and prognostic subgroups." Hepatology. 2017 Jan; Pubmed PMID: 27775819
Memberships
- American Society of Clinical Oncology
- Children's Oncology Group
- American Society of Cell and Gene Therapy
- AACR
Funding
- Interleukin-15 and -21 armored Glypican-3-specific CAR T cells for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (04/01/2019 - 03/01/2025) Grant funding from Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas
- IL15 and IL21 armored GPC3-CAR T cells for children with solid tumors - #R01CA258866 (01/01/2022 - 12/31/2026) Grant funding from National Institute of Health
- Synthetic gene expression regulatory switches (SynGERS) expressed in CAR T cells to cure children with solid tumors (02/01/2024 - 01/31/2028) Grant funding from ALSF
- Cellular Immunotherapies for Pediatric Solid Tumors (08/31/2024 - 08/30/2028) CANCER PREVENTION AND RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF TEXAS
- Overcoming major barriers to the delivery of successful T-Cell Immunotherapies (08/31/2024 - 08/30/2028) CANCER PREVENTION AND RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF TEXAS
Intellectual Property
- Glypican-3 specific chimeric antigen receptors for adoptive immunotherapy
- Design Patent #WO2016049459A1 (Pending)
- Targeting the tumor microenvironment using manipulated nkt cells
- Design Patent #US20140255363A1 (Pending)
- CAR T cells with one or more interleukins
- Design Patent (Pending)
Languages
Hungarian
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