The treatment, called CAR-T therapy, involves genetically modifying some of a patient's own cells to help them recognize and attack cancer. Richard Carlstrand of Long Key, Florida, had it more than a year ago for mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer of the lining of the lungs.
The first CAR-T therapies were approved in 2017 for some leukemias and lymphomas. After being altered in the lab, the modified immune system cells are returned to the patient through an IV, which puts them right where the cancer is -- in the blood. A bigger worry is that the proteins on solid tumour cells that these therapies target also are found on normal cells at lower levels, so the therapy might harm them, too.
After the therapy, one patient was able to have surgery and radiation, and is doing well 20 months later with no further treatment. Fifteen others were well enough to start on a drug that boosts the immune system in a different way. Grants from the federal government and foundations paid for the work and a larger study is planned. Sloan Kettering has licensed the treatment to Atara Biotherapeutics and may get payments from it, as may Adusumilli.
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