CAR T Cell Therapy Trial Shows Promise in Fighting Tumors

Less than 10 years ago, NPR’s Rob Stein was reporting on what he described as “among the most exciting developments in cancer research in years” — a type of treatment known as CAR T cells. That’s an acronym for “chimeric antigen receptor,” and, as the National Cancer Institute pointed out, they’re made using a patient’s T cells, which can bolster their ability to fight cancer within that person’s body.

Now, a new clinical trial indicates that CAR T cells may have promise in treating solid tumors. As Rachel Fieldhouse reported at Nature, a clinical trial that recently concluded in China used this type of therapy to treat two different types of cancer, both of which manifest as solid tumors — something that, Fieldhouse notes, CAR T cells have not been as effective against compared to cancer affecting the blood.

As Nature reported, 35% of patients in the clinical trial who were given this specific treatment, known as satri-cel, showed a response to it. They were also, Fieldhouse writes, “31% less likely to die than the people in the control group.” The results of the clinical trial do have one cause for caution, however: a significant amount of side effects in patients receiving this therapy.

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Encouraging news for cancer prevention

Still, the idea of a form of CAR T cell treatment that could be effective against a form of cancer that has thus far eluded this type of therapy’s ability to be effective is promising news. This isn’t the only bit of good news about CAR T cells’ ability to fight solid tumors to emerge this year, either. The Guardian recently shared the news that one of the first patients to experience this type of therapy has been in remission for the last 18 years.