The patient, Hamza Khan, was initially diagnosed with follicular lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph nodes, in 2020. His condition required several rounds of chemotherapy and maintenance with rituximab.
Despite efforts, his cancer recurred in February 2022, leaving him with no viable treatment options.
Standard chemotherapy and an autologous stem cell transplant proved ineffective and her condition worsened after a severe Covid-19 infection. As conventional treatments failed and his disease progressed, in September 2022, doctors at Narayana Health City treated him with a cutting-edge immunotherapy, known as CAR T-cell therapy, launched by IMMUNEEL in Bengaluru.D Sharat Damodar, senior consultant hematologist and head of adult BMT at Narayana Health City, told IANS: "CAR T-cell therapy has revolutionized the cancer treatment landscape, providing lifesaving treatment to patients who have exhausted conventional options. Is."
"This unprecedented breakthrough ushers in a new era in cancer treatment, providing hope to countless patients facing recurrent cancer," he said.
CAR T-cell therapy, or chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, is an unprecedented form of immunotherapy that is primarily used to treat certain types of cancer, especially blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma. The treatment involves modifying the patient's T-cells, a type of white blood cell that plays a central role in the immune response, to better recognize and attack cancer cells.
Dr. Damodar said, “Advances ensure that world-class treatment options are accessible within India."It has a lot of potential, because immunotherapy has fewer side effects and so it can be given to more people and the patient's own cells can be used."
"Hamza's case exemplifies the potential of CAR T-cell therapy to provide durable relief in relapsed lymphoma," he said.
This therapy was approved for commercial use by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) in October 2023.
NexCAR19, jointly developed by scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and Tata Memorial Hospital in collaboration with industry partner ImmunoACT, became the first CAR-T cell therapy to receive approval in India.
Dr. Damodar said, “The manufacturing process is different for different varieties of CAR-T cells and this will alter the efficacy and efficacy.Long-term cure rates also vary."
"Cancer is just like bacteria and viruses. You get cancer when your body's immune cells become inactive. So in CAR T-cell therapy, we remove the immune cells from the patient and engineer them so that they "Become active again against cancer." Dr Vipul Sheth, senior consultant, department of hemato oncology at Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Center (RGCIRC), told IANS.He called the therapy "living medicine." Dr Sheth said that "the one-time treatment fights and kills the cancer, which remains in the body".
"So the next time the cancer is exposed, it can activate to fight on its own. Because of this treatment, you can treat many refractory patients. So basically people who get stem cell transplants Or don't even respond to chemotherapy, in those patients you can give CAR T cell therapy," he said.
Despite efforts, his cancer recurred in February 2022, leaving him with no viable treatment options.
Standard chemotherapy and an autologous stem cell transplant proved ineffective and her condition worsened after a severe Covid-19 infection. As conventional treatments failed and his disease progressed, in September 2022, doctors at Narayana Health City treated him with a cutting-edge immunotherapy, known as CAR T-cell therapy, launched by IMMUNEEL in Bengaluru.D Sharat Damodar, senior consultant hematologist and head of adult BMT at Narayana Health City, told IANS: "CAR T-cell therapy has revolutionized the cancer treatment landscape, providing lifesaving treatment to patients who have exhausted conventional options. Is."
"This unprecedented breakthrough ushers in a new era in cancer treatment, providing hope to countless patients facing recurrent cancer," he said.
CAR T-cell therapy, or chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, is an unprecedented form of immunotherapy that is primarily used to treat certain types of cancer, especially blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma. The treatment involves modifying the patient's T-cells, a type of white blood cell that plays a central role in the immune response, to better recognize and attack cancer cells.
Dr. Damodar said, “Advances ensure that world-class treatment options are accessible within India."It has a lot of potential, because immunotherapy has fewer side effects and so it can be given to more people and the patient's own cells can be used."
"Hamza's case exemplifies the potential of CAR T-cell therapy to provide durable relief in relapsed lymphoma," he said.
This therapy was approved for commercial use by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) in October 2023.
NexCAR19, jointly developed by scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and Tata Memorial Hospital in collaboration with industry partner ImmunoACT, became the first CAR-T cell therapy to receive approval in India.
Dr. Damodar said, “The manufacturing process is different for different varieties of CAR-T cells and this will alter the efficacy and efficacy.Long-term cure rates also vary."
"Cancer is just like bacteria and viruses. You get cancer when your body's immune cells become inactive. So in CAR T-cell therapy, we remove the immune cells from the patient and engineer them so that they "Become active again against cancer." Dr Vipul Sheth, senior consultant, department of hemato oncology at Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Center (RGCIRC), told IANS.He called the therapy "living medicine." Dr Sheth said that "the one-time treatment fights and kills the cancer, which remains in the body".
"So the next time the cancer is exposed, it can activate to fight on its own. Because of this treatment, you can treat many refractory patients. So basically people who get stem cell transplants Or don't even respond to chemotherapy, in those patients you can give CAR T cell therapy," he said.
