By Alvin Powell – The Harvard Gazette –
The Food and Drug Administration announced last week that it’s investigating reports of secondary cancers in patients who received CAR T-cell therapy, one of a suite of immunotherapies that have revolutionized cancer care over the past decade. The treatment reprograms a patient’s T cells, a key part of the immune system, to recognize and attack cancer cells.
So far CAR T-cell therapy has been used mainly for blood cancers, such as leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma. Physicians have reported dramatic improvement in many patients who have exhausted more traditional treatments, like chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery.