So-called CAR-T cell treatment was approved for certain types of blood cancer in Sweden in 2019, and so far around 150 patients have been treated in several of the country’s hospitals.
At Karolinska University Hospital, which recently together with the Karolinska Institute started a so-called ATMP center specialized for this type of advanced cell and gene therapies, it is believed that this is the future.
– We will change the chance of survival for our cancer patients dramatically. This can cure those who could not really be cured before, says Stephan Mielke, professor of hematology and cell therapy at the Karolinska Institute and director of CAST operations at Karolinska University Hospital.
Own cells are modified
Put simply, immune cells are taken out of the patient’s blood and then sent to a laboratory where they are modified and then reintroduced into the body. The immune cells then seek out and fight the cancer cells. The whole process takes about a month and can cause severe side effects.
– It is a completely different way of attacking tumor cells than when you give chemotherapy. I think that this type of treatment where we use the body’s own immune system is something that will only get bigger and bigger, says Kristina Sonnevi, senior physician at the lymphoma section at Karolinska University Hospital.
Promising results
At present, the treatment is mainly used on patients with various types of blood cancer who have had several relapses and who often have no effect from standard chemotherapy. The new treatment is expensive, but so far the researchers have seen promising results.
In more than half of the cases, the CAR-T treatment leads to the patient becoming free of his cancer.
Stephan Mielke says that already four weeks after discharge, the cancer has often disappeared or shrunk significantly. In the future, he hopes that the treatment will be able to be given at an earlier stage and for other forms of cancer, where studies are currently being conducted.
– What we see now is just the beginning.