Hello friends and welcome back, this week we will be going back to normal and talking about more scientific-y things. As you might have guessed from reading the title to this post, we will be discussing an emerging cure for some cancers known as CAR T-cell therapy.
What is CAR T-cell Therapy & How Does It Work?
As you all may know, a cure for cancer hasn’t exactly been announced, but there is an emerging immunotherapy treatment that seems promising. CAR T-cell therapy involves taking a patient’s immune cells, modifying them to target cancer, and then returning them to the patient’s body. According to the Cleveland Clinic, once blood is collected from the patient’s body, the T cells are separated and removed from the blood while the remaining blood is returned to the body. T cells are used because they are the body’s primary killing cells, protecting the body from abnormal cells, including cancers. However, at times, T cells don’t recognize the cancer cells or can’t fully destroy all of them present in the body. After the cells are separated from the blood, they are genetically modified in a lab to have special receptors on their surface called “chimeric antigen receptors,” or CAR. These receptors allow the T cells to better recognize cancer cells to kill them. The patient then receives some chemotherapy to improve the chance that the CAR T cells will be accepted and not attacked by the immune system when returned to the body. Lastly, the cells are delivered back to the patient through a blood transfusion and they remain in the patient’s body to help fight cancer if it returns and helps keep the patient in remission.
Are There Any Risks?
There is a clinical trial running for the treatment and according to New Atlas, an online magazine for new technology and science news, “as many as 93 percent of participants in the latest trial responded positively to the therapy.” While there has been positive outcomes however, there is still a downside to the treatment. For one, it is a very expensive treatment so not many can afford it, and two, there have been some serious side effects associated with it. Many patients experienced cytopenias, a reduction in levels of certain blood cells, while other patients experienced infections. Some patients even experienced neurological events including encephalopathy, confusion, agitation, aphasia, and other symptoms. These side effects can make it difficult in patients with other medical problems, so research is still being done on them. Fortunately, some of the side effects can be managed with other medications, but they may also not always be available.
Success?
Results of CAR T cell therapy for patients with lymphoma and other blood cancers are high and promising. Patients whose cancer returned or those whose treatments didn’t work, achieved full success with CAR T therapy. In the clinical trial stated in New Atlas, 67 percent of patients entered remission within a few weeks of the treatment and follow up exams a year later showed 57 percent were still in remission. However, while there is a high success rate giving hope to patients, longer term trials with a larger pool of patients is needed to confirm numbers. If larger trials are used, it will help identify the side effects and the best ways in which to manage them.
This new immunotherapy has raised a lot of hope for cancer patients across the globe, but more research is still needed to get better results. It never fails to amaze me how much our bodies do for us and how much doctors and scientists are able to use things in our body to help us fight off infections. I believe that with more research being done with this therapy, it will soon be known to have 100 percent success rate and it will be used to treat more types of cancer.
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