Lately there have been many terrible things happening in the world (as explained in my last post), but here’s some positivity to uplift everyone’s spirits: T-cell therapy. This is something that i have just learned about that has actually put me in a positive attitude about what’s happening in the world. T-cell therapy is the genetically engineering of T-cells. They are genetically changed so that they will attack a specific protein because of their modified T-cell receptors. In this post, I will specifically talk about chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy.
First of all, what the heck is a T-cell? T-cells are white blood cells of the immune system and can kill the bad cells. CAR T-cell therapy is a type of cancer therapy that utilizes a patient’s white blood cells; they are genetically modified to target and kill the cancer cells. How does this work? First, a process known as leukapheresis is started, this is when the cancer patient’s blood is drawn and T-cells are separated from the blood (with the blood given back to the patient afterwards). The separated T-cells are genetically modified in a laboratory to have special receptors, call chimeric antigen receptors, that specifically target antigens on cancer cells. Once they recognize the cancer cells, they can become activated and kill them. Once they are modified, they are grown until an efficient amount is produced, and given returned back to the patient after they have received chemotherapy (to increase the chances that the body will accept the CAR T-cells.) This whole process sounds promising right? It definitely is, we all dreamed of a cure to cancer and this just take sit one step closer to it. However, there are some downfalls.
One of the downfalls is that this treatment has been effective in some types of cancer, not all, and CAR T-cell therapy does not always work because many patients relapse afterwards. Another downfall is that this treatment can be costly, something that many cannot afford. It costs about $373,000 per infusion, however many doctors have explained that this treatment has more promising results than just chemotherapy itself. CAR T-cell therapy comes with side effects such as cytokine release syndrome (similar to flu symptoms), neutropenia (low white blood count), anemia (low red blood cell count), confusion, aphasia, drowsiness, agitation, and brain disease or brain injury. Despite these downfalls, I believe that this is still a promising treatment, it takes us one step forward in the medical field which is very exciting. CAR T-cell therapy was first approved in 2017, and lots have been improved and discovered since then about this treatment. Who knows, it may 100% effective for all cancers in the future and be the first cure to it!
Virulent Girl 