ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Lupus is a debilitating autoimmune disease that affects around 1.5 million Americans. Now, new research shows a therapy that’s been used for cancer patients may help people with lupus go into remission.
Living with lupus can be painful and frustrating.
“I’ve noticed weight gain, fatigue, joint pain,” said Diana Yeauger Espinoza.
“Like I couldn’t sit up, like it was that bad,” recalled Dominic Lipka.
Lupus is a disease where your immune system mistakenly attacks healthy cells. It can be treated with steroids and immune-blocking drugs, but they don’t always work. Now researchers are looking at a new treatment that’s usually used in cancer patients. It’s called CAR T-cell therapy and it’s shown a lot of success in blood cancers.
“CAR T-cell therapy is a type of immunotherapy,” said Natalie Grover, MD, clinical director of the cellular therapy program at UNC Health.
With CAR T, doctors remove special white blood cells called T cells from your blood. Then, they reprogram the cells in the lab and infuse them back into your body.
“Their T cells are now specifically targeted to attack their cancer cells,” explained Dr. Grover.
When it comes to lupus, researchers believe those new T cells target bad B cells that are attacking your body. Only a few dozen patients with lupus have been treated with CAR T-cell therapy, but in a small study, all five lupus patients who received CAR T-cell therapy went into remission, with some lasting up to three years after their one-time infusion.
“One of the other interests is looking at what we call off-the-shelf CAR T cells, or CAR T cells that are made from donors’ blood, as opposed to the patient’s blood, so they can be available more quickly for patients,” said Dr. Grover.
Though the research is early, scientists say it’s a step in the right direction for a disease that doesn’t yet have a cure.
CAR T-cell therapy is not FDA-approved for lupus and it is very expensive. The American Cancer Society estimates it can cost upwards of $500,000.
Contributors to this news report include: Julie Marks, Producer; Chuck Bennethum, Editor.
Source:
https://www.lupus.org/resources/lupus-facts-and-statistics
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/18/well/lupus-treatment-cart.html
https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/car-t-cell-therapy-reaches-beyond-cancer-for-lupus
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02017-5
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2308917
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/managing-cancer/treatment-types/immunotherapy/car-t-cell.html
* For More Information, Contact: Natalie Grover, MD
Clinical Director of the Cellular Therapy Program at UNC Health
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