University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center will begin treating adults with a "living drug" that employs their own immune cells to fight a common type of aggressive blood cancer. 

Howard Bailey, MD, professor, Hematology, Medical Oncology and Palliative Care and director, UW Carbone Cancer Center, remarked about the availability of CAR T-cell immunotherapy to treat adults with diffuse, large B-cell lymphoma that has not responded to treatment, or that has relapsed after at least two other kinds of treatment. 

"I am so pleased that we have been approved to offer this cutting-edge treatment to our patients, especially since Carbone physician-scientists helped take this technology from the lab to the cancer clinic," said Dr. Bailey.

The treatment was described in an interview with Mark Juckett, MD, professor (CHS), Hematology, Medical Oncology and Palliative Care and Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs and Quality. The procedure is a refined version of stem cell transplant therapy techniques that are now 30 years old, he explained in an article in student news outlet The Daily Cardinal.

"Stem cell transplant has been available for 30 years. This is a very refined version of the stem cell transplant where we give new immune cells to patients, hoping they attack the cancer. So that’s a very blunt tool, whereas CAR T-cell is composed of cells from patients that are trained to attack specifically targeted cancerous cells," said Dr. Juckett.  

Resources:

• "UW Carbone Certified to Begin Offering CAR T-cell Treatment for Adult Lymphoma," UW Health, February 21, 2018
• "UW Carbone certified for new cancer therapy," The Daily Cardinal, March 15, 2018

Photo caption (top): Dr. Howard Bailey discusses UW-Madison cancer immunotherapy research during a Mini Med School community lecture on March 19, 2015. Photo credit: Clint Thayer/Department of Medicine