Harness the Power of Your Immune System with CAR-T Cell Therapy
CAR-T cell therapy is one of the most effective areas of cancer treatment. It uses your body's own white blood cells, called T-cells, to recognize and destroy certain cancers. This revolutionary immunotherapy is FDA approved for people with relapsed or refractory hematologic cancers including:
- Relapsed, refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia
- Relapsed, refractory large B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
- Relapsed, refractory mantle cell lymphoma
- Relapsed, refractory follicular lymphoma
- Relapsed, refractory multiple myeloma
- Other types of cancer and medical conditions undergoing clinical studies
Research shows CAR-T cell therapy has improved complete remission rates to up to 76% for some indications. For B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, 71% of patients have complete remission or complete remission with incomplete hematologic malignancies. Anywhere from 49% to 53% of patients with large B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma achieve complete remission depending on the type of CAR-T product used. Mantle cell lymphoma, follicular lymphoma and multiple myeloma have overall response rates above 90% with complete remission rates of 67%, 76%, and 67%, respectively.
The Mayo Clinic CAR-T Cell Therapy Program is a landmark program. Mayo Clinic was one of a few centers nationwide that treated people as part of the clinical trial that led to the therapy's FDA approval in 2017.
Choose Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center and receive personalized care from a multidisciplinary team of experts trained and certified to manage CAR-T cell therapy. Mayo Clinic's campus in Florida is nationally recognized for cancer care by U.S. News & World Report and a National Cancer Institute Specialized Program of Research Excellence for lymphoma.
The Mayo Clinic Cancer Center is a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center.
My advice to anyone else that has lymphoma is to know that there's hope, that there's opportunity, and that they should call Mayo Clinic. CAR-T is the therapy of the future. It's given me a chance to live, and I'm forever grateful.
- Tanis, CAR-T patient
'She has big things ahead of her.' CAR-T cell therapy gives Florida teen hope
I started playing softball when I was five. Being a catcher, like you have to be strong.
Brooke Michael knows more than the average teenager about being strong. In November 2020, then 17 years old and a high school senior, she called her mom in pain after softball practice.
She had been sick for about five weeks prior, but we thought she had a shoulder injury.
Brooke was also struggling to breathe. Stephanie took her daughter to a pediatric hospital where physicians found fluid around her heart in a tumor compressing her airway.
They had told us that she had anywhere between hours to days to live.
Brooke's diagnosis, primary B-cell lymphoma, cancer of the immune system that tends to affect young people.
Cancer when you get that diagnosis, especially with your child, it's hard. And it's hard to stay positive, but you have to.
After six cycles of chemotherapy and proton radiation therapy, my cancer wasn't really responding. Soon after broken, her family turned to the Mayo Clinic cancer center. Physicians believed Brooke was a good candidate for chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, also known as CAR T-cell therapy. The personalized treatment collects a patient's T-cells which normally help fight off infections, and genetically engineers them to target lymphoma.
CAR-T represents a real game changer and essentially represents the future of lymphoma treatments.
Dr. Madiha Iqbal was a Mayo Clinic hematologist and oncologist, and a member of Brooke's care team.
When I first heard about CAR-T, I was a little bit nervous, but I was still pretty excited to hear that they're very optimistic and they've seen a lot of good outcomes.
In November 2021, almost a year to the day of her diagnosis, Brooke's modified cells were infused back into her body.
We assess response to CAR T-cell therapy at 30 days after the cell infusion. Brooke had a remarkable response. Her disease had almost completely gone.
Brooke's body maintained that response through her 100-day checkup. Scientists and physicians are becoming more comfortable calling these patients as cured.
For Brooke, that means being back on the diamond, catching on the same college team as her twin sister, Brittany.
It was really exciting getting back on the softball field and starting with Brittany because that's what we always dreamed of.
She says time spent in the hospital also helped reaffirm her career dreams.
I've always wanted to be a nurse since I was young. But going through this really made me feel like I wanted to help people.
A dream Stephanie sees coming true. And I hate that she's on this journey, but I feel like she has big things ahead of her in her life because of this. She'll be able to help people with this.
Though Brooke will have ongoing check-ups, her family's focus is on the future.
She feels great, you would never know she has cancer.
I don't really think about the past at all anymore because I'm really in a normal life now. I got a life to live.
For the Mayo Clinic News Network, I'm Alex Osciadacz.
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