An interesting field of studying is the use of T cells and dendritic cells in fighting cancer. According to the National Cancer Institute, T cells are taken from a patient’s blood and then are modified in the laboratory. A special receptor is added to the patient’s T cells that will recognize and bind to proteins on the specific cancer cells in their body and attack them. The name of this receptor is chimeric antigen receptor and a large number of CAR T cells are grown as a possible therapy for certain types of cancer. This is still an ongoing study and has much more progress to go.
As or right now, the FDA has only approved of two CAR T cell therapies, and both are for blood cancers. The two blood cancers are Tisagenlecleucel and Axicabtagene ciloleucel. The development of CAR T cell therapy was originally for metastatic melanoma because they cause a strong immune response. Promising results were shown with therapy on melanoma patients as well as those with cervical cancers. New studies are focusing on using the therapy on solid tumors such as breast cancer and brain cancers, but this has yet to be approved by the FDA for regular use.
Despite the promising results shown so far, there are still side effects to this treatment. The side effects largely depend on the health of the patient, their type of cancer, and how far the cancer has progressed. A serious side effect of this treatment is cytokine release syndrome, which causes a large release of cytokines into the blood resulting in side effects such as fever, irregular heartbeat, nausea, trouble breathing, and more. Overall, I think this is a great step towards fighting cancer and I look forward to seeing greater advancements in the future. As a person who has had a relative with cancer, I hope this will become a breakthrough in treatment.
Priyam's Blog 