According to a recent article, after the results of a clinical trial, researchers have proven that CAR-T cells can cure patients that are diagnosed with leukemia.

Leukemia

Leukemia is a form of cancer that occurs in the tissues that form blood, such as the bone marrow and lymphatic system. There are many forms of this cancer, the majority of which are caused by an issue with white blood cells.

Symptoms:

Symptoms of leukemia can vary depending on the specific form that one has. Common symptoms include:

• Easy bruising and bleeding
• Fatigue
• Weakness
• Fever
• Chills
• Frequent infections
• Unintentional weight loss
• Recurrent nosebleeds
• Swollen lymph nodes
• An enlarged liver or spleen
• Excessive sweating
• Bone pain and tenderness
• Petechiae

Causes:

There is no known cause of leukemia, but it is suspected to be a mix of genetic and environmental factors. Medical professionals do know that there is a mutation in the DNA of blood cells, leading them to grow and multiply out of control. They crowd and lower the levels of healthy blood cells.

Risk factors do exist. If one has been treated for cancer in the past, they have a higher chance of developing leukemia. Smoking, certain genetic disorders, a family history of the cancer, and exposure to certain chemicals may also heighten the risk.

How Two Men Changed Treatment for Leukemia

A little over a decade ago, Bill Ludwig and Doug Olson were battling chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Both men had tried numerous rounds of traditional treatments to no avail, so when they heard about an experimental therapy that the University of Pennsylvania was testing out, they jumped onboard.

Twelve years after starting the therapy, both men are still cancer free, and researchers even discovered there were still modified cells in their body from their treatment.

CAR-T Cell Therapy

The therapy, known as CAR-T cell therapy, works by taking a patient’s own T cells and modifying them to target and destroy cancer cells specifically. T cells are a vital part of the immune system, so scientists separated them from the blood and added receptors to the cells to recognize and kill cancer cells. From there, scientists will grow more of the cancer-killing cells and infuse them back into the patients.

Thousands of cancer patients worldwide have received CAR-T cell therapies. Although the therapy has not proven to be a cure for all cancer patients, it has shown promising results amongst adults with certain blood cancers, as well as children diagnosed with leukemia.

Researchers have determined that the lasting remission success rate for patients that undergo CAR-T cell therapy is between 30 and 40 percent.

The FDA so far has approved five different CAR-T cell therapies which are Kymriah, Yescarta, Tecartus, Breyanzi, and Abecma.

Regular Treatments Versus CAR-T Cell Therapy

The difference between CAR-T cell therapy and typical cancer treatments is that CAR-T cell therapy is specifically made to fit an individual patient by using their own living cells. Other treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery, do not employ this technique.

Furthermore, CAR-T cell therapy does not result in the same symptoms as traditional treatments often do. For example, chemotherapy comes with a number of side effects such as hair loss, nausea, and extreme fatigue because the treatment can also destroy healthy cells along with the cancer cells. The therapy does still come with side effects; however, they are not as severe as those seen with chemotherapy.

The side effects of CAR-T cell therapy vary, but it does have the possibility to cause serious side effects. Some of these side effects are cytokine release syndrome, an inflammatory response, and immune effector cell associated neurological toxicity, which is a neuropsychiatric response. Both of these side effects are treatable, and patients will typically recover quickly.

Eligibility

CAR-T cell therapy currently has only been approved as a treatment for particular types of leukemias and lymphomas, a majority of which are blood cancers. For a patient to be considered for this treatment they would have undergone two attempts of traditional cancer treatments with little to no success (either the cancer did not respond or it came back following treatment).

With the success of CAR-T cell therapy for leukemia, it shows great promise for the development of other treatments for cancers. Researchers are already working on clinical trials to test various cell therapies and combinations of CAR-T cell therapies with other treatments and their efficacy.