- An 11-year-old has become the first patient to receive CAR-T therapy (immunotherapy) that uses the body’s own cells to fight cancer.
- CAR-T is a personalized form of cancer treatment.
- CAR-T involves removing immune cells and modifying them in a laboratory so they can recognize cancer cells.
- Immunotherapy is treatment that uses your body’s own immune system to help fight cancer
- First, the patient has blood removed and the white blood cells are separated out, with the rest of the blood being returned to the patient.
- A harmless virus is used to insert genes into T-cells, a special type of immune cell.
- These genes cause the T-cells to add a hook on to their surface, known as a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR).
- These engineered CAR-T cells – programmed to recognize and destroy the patient’s cancer cells – are multiplied in huge numbers and then infused back into the patient.
