Good news regarding Car T!

[Moqua]

Hi, some very encouraging news from our provincial government! They have just announced CarT treatments for twenty patients inthe fiscal year. That could result in significant savings in the the long run I would think.

[Skyshark]

CAR-T works well for Large B-cell Lymphoma and Acute B-cell Lymphocytic Leukaemia (ALL). It is a treatment of last resort. It has limited duration of remission for CLL and is still a work in progress.

news.gov.bc.ca/releases/202...

CAR-T therapy is a form of immunotherapy that has become a life-saving cancer treatment option for the treatment of refractory or relapsed large B-cell lymphoma in adult patients and acute B-cell lymphocytic leukaemia in pediatric and adult patients, when primary cancer treatments have been unsuccessful.

This announcement says it's not new but they will now provide the treatment in B.C. and not have to refer patients elsewhere. This is very good news for those patients and their families, particularly for the young people with ALL. 46 years ago I had a classmate with ALL, all he wanted to do was take and pass his A level maths, he didn't make it to the exam.

Previously, eligible patients living in B.C. were referred to out-of-province/country cancer clinics to undergo CAR-T therapy. Providing standard-of-care CAR-T therapy in this province will help increase access and ensure eligible patients can receive the care they need in B.C.

[Oleboyredw-uk in reply to Skyshark]

I the discussion I had with my consultant, he as been my consultant since 2012 he did not portray CAR-T as 'a treatment of last resort' and did suggest an alternative if it CAR-T failed for me. I think you paint a picture that can appear as very black and white to many.

best to all, robin

[fraxus1 in reply to Skyshark]

CAR-T therapy generally hasn't lived up to hopes and expectations. It may be applicable for some conditions but ...

[Skyshark in reply to fraxus1]

UCL have high hopes they have made a more effective version that can can retain effectiveness. Early days.

ucl.ac.uk/news/2023/jan/tri...

[fraxus1 in reply to Skyshark]

Every one of the dozen+ teams researching new treatments have "high hopes". RCTs will tell the real story. The *current* CAR-T therapies have been effective for ALL and some B-cell but not approved anywhere (afaik) for CLL; rather ineffective for solid tumor cancers, and have significant risks. I hope that future work creates CAR-T therapies that are safer and more selective. OTOH CAR-T isn't very scalable - taking an individuals cells and culturing them in-lab is likely to remain very expensive for the foreseeable future.

[Skyshark in reply to fraxus1]

There is work to develop "off the shelf" allogeneic CAR-T therapies using donor or cord blood T-cells. It's claimed this will reduce the cost by a factor of ten but there are potential problems with GVHD and there is still the financial and personal cost of a minimum 28/30 day stay in isolation. It also comes with a prior dose of lymphodepleting chemotherapy.

[Oleboyredw-uk in reply to Skyshark]

I'm aware of UCL's AllCAR19 trial. christie.nhs.uk/about-us/ne...

🙂