Parallel Journeys: CAR T-Cell Therapy

Описание: Cancer cells can find ways to evade the immune system. CAR T-cell therapy retrains a patient’s body's defenses to recognize and target cancer cells.

CAR T-cell therapy is an innovative treatment that uses modified version of a patient’s own T cells ­to attack cancer cells. The time from initial collection of T cells from the patient to the infusion of the modified CAR T cells typically takes about five to eight weeks. During this time, patients and their cells travel parallel journeys before being reunited — at which point, the newly reprogrammed CAR T cells can latch onto and kill a patient’s cancer cells.

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TRANSCRIPT:
CAR T-cell therapy is an immunotherapy that uses modified version of a patient’s own T cells ¬to attack cancer cells. From initial collection of T cells to the infusion of the now modified CAR T cells, the journey for both patient and their cells typically takes about 5 to 8 weeks.

First, billions of T cells are collected in a one-day procedure known as leukapheresis. The patient’s blood is drawn through a central line into a centrifuge, which separates out immune cells, including T cells, and returns the remainder of the blood to the body.

After collection, the immune cells are brought to Dana-Farber's Connell and O'Reilly Families Cell Manipulation Core Facility, or CMCF, where they are packaged and sent to a specialized lab specific to the CAR T-cell product being manufactured.

There, the T cells are selected from the immune cells and then genetically programmed to produce a special receptor, called a chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR, on their surface. The CARs allow the T cells to bind to and attack cancer cells. The cells, now called CAR T cells, are then grown in the lab until there are billions of them. This process usually takes three to six weeks.

When the CAR T cells are ready, they return to the CMCF lab in frozen state, and are stored in liquid nitrogen tanks until the scheduled infusion day.

Before receiving their CAR T cells, patients undergo a few days of low-dose chemotherapy, known as lymphodepletion, to prepare the body to receive the newly reprogrammed immune cells.

Patients may receive the CAR T-cell infusion in the hospital or in our outpatient clinic. On the scheduled infusion day, the CAR T cells are thawed, and then brought to the patient's bedside. The CAR T cells are infused into the bloodstream through a central line.

Once in the patient, the CAR T cells multiply, latch on to cancer cells, and kill them.