With the help of a new therapy, formerly incurable cancers can be put into remission
March 14, 2019
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common form of childhood cancer, representing 20% of all cancers diagnosed in patients under 20. For many years, children’s options included effective, but grueling, treatments of chemotherapy, radiation, as well as stem cell transplants.
In recent months, however, a revolutionary new treatment known as CAR T-cell therapy has provided new hope for those diagnosed. CAR-T is an abbreviation for chimeric antigen receptor T-Cell therapy. In this form of treatment, a patient’s immune cells are captured from their blood and engineered to recognize and kill cancer cells throughout the body. Once created, these cells are re-injected into the patient and are recognized as native immune cells.
There are still questions and concerns to be answered in regards to this newly developed treatment. Two of the primary concerns include the cost as well as a lack of long-term data regarding patient outcomes.
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