T Cell Therapy: Too Good to Be True?

How great would it be if we could find a new, efficient way to treat cancer? And how much GREATER would it be if we could treat it using cells found in the patients own blood? Scientists are now using something known as Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy to treat hematologic cancers. According to a journal article from Oncology Reports, CAR T cell therapy involves taking T cells from a patient’s blood and engineering them so that they express the specific receptors for a tumor antigen. How crazy is it that we have the technology to do something like that?! It sure is great to live in the 21st century!

So how effective is CAR T cell therapy? The same study found that there was a 6-month survival rate of 89% (Rimjhim et al). This result is astounding! It is very encouraging that technology is enabling us to effectively treat diseases like this that we’ve never been able to before. However, there are some pretty big concerns surrounding CAR T cell therapy still. According to a similar journal article from The New England Journal of Medicine, there are some pretty serious side effects, including cytokine release syndrome and neurological events. Clearly, more research needs to be done about how we can use technology to treat cancer while avoiding such undesired effects.

But if the side effects alone aren’t enough to convince you that T cell therapy needs to be improved, take a look at the costs. The study in Oncology Reports found that when you consider all of the hospitalization and drugs related to the treatment are considered, a single cancer patient can face $1,500,000 in bills (Rimjhim et al). That’s for ONE person! I’m starting to think it may not be worth it when considering how harsh the side effects are! One thing is clear: before CAR T cell therapy goes into widespread use, side effects must be diminished and costs must go down. It is impressive technology, but I’m confident that over time, we can make it even better!