HEALTHY LIFESTYLE · JULY 2018
LIF E B LO O D
How Breakthrough CAR-T
Therapy Attacks Cancer
CAR-T, or Chimeric Antigen Receptor T
cell therapy, is a personalized therapy that
involves engineering a patient’s own immune
system’s blood cells – arming the cells – to
attack cancer cells. During the complex
procedure, doctors remove some of the
patient’s T-cells, a type of white blood cells,
which are then shipped to a cryogenic
chamber to be genetically reprogrammed
to identify and attack cancer. Weeks later,
doctors then infuse the re-engineered cells
back into the patient’s body.
Sounds like science fiction. But it’s now a
treatment reality for some patients with
diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL),
the most common and aggressive form
of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and acute
lymphoblastic leukemia. Currently, CAR-T
may be available to adult DLBCL patients who
have not responded to two or more types of
standard therapy.
C
ancer treatment is becoming less about type of the cancer
and where it’s located in the body, and more about what’s
inside – deep inside – cancer cells that is causing them to
misbehave. Changing that bad behavior by sparking the
immune system to fight back is the aim of an exciting novel
cancer treatment breakthrough, a form of immunotherapy called CAR-T.
Because CAR-T’s side effects can be serious,
and can include fever and low blood
pressure, specially trained medical teams
are in place to carefully monitor patients.
Early results suggest that CAR-T is one of the
most potent therapies ever tested for DLBCL
cancer patients.
The Food and Drug Administration first
approved the new CAR-T therapy in 2017 for
the specific types of lymphoma and leukemia
after its promising results during clinical
trials.
Earlier this year, Texas Oncology–Baylor
Charles A. Sammons Cancer, in collaboration
with Baylor University Medical Center,
became the second facility in the state to
provide groundbreaking FDA-approved
CAR-T therapy for DLBCL cancer. That
collaboration also has included numerous
clinical trials to test CAR-T therapy.
16 HEALTHY MAGAZINE
CAR-T is an example of
innovative and promising medical
advancements following extensive
clinical trials. Research continues,
including at Texas Oncology, to
examine the effectiveness of the new
therapy for other forms of cancer.
Through research and patient
participation in trials, oncologists
are rapidly discovering dramatically
better ways to treat, diagnose, and
prevent even the most aggressive
forms of cancer.
GUILLERMO LAZO, M.D.
Guillermo Lazo, M.D., is a medical
oncologist at Texas Oncology—
McAllen, 1901 S 2nd Street in
McAllen, Texas.
To learn more about exciting
advancements in cancer treatment,
visit www.TexasOncology.com
or call 1-888-864-I CAN (4226).