LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – Fever, weight loss, chest pain, back pain — all of these symptoms are signs of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which is a type of cancer that begins in your lymphatic system and travels quickly throughout the body. Now, a new immunotherapy is giving patients a second chance they never thought they would have.
Chuck Fata puts everything he has into running the family’s four Italian restaurants, but in 2014, a constant dull back pain threw Chuck for a loop.
“We got an MRI to see what was going on, and it was cancer and I couldn’t believe it,” Chuck says.
Chuck was diagnosed with a non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He had chemo, a bone marrow transplant, even had half of his stomach, part of his pancreas, and his spleen removed. But the cancer continued to spread. City of Hope hematologist and oncologist, Dr. Tanya Siddiqi, MD, suggested CAR T cell therapy.
“CAR T cell therapy is a way to take patient’s own healthy immune cells called T cells, and change them in the lab in a way that instead of looking for infections to fight infections, the CAR T cells then, are trained to look for the lymphoma and fight the lymphoma instead,” Dr. Saddiqi explains.
Chuck’s own T cells were genetically engineered in the lab to target a specific protein found on cancer cells.
Dr. Saddiqi adds, “It takes about two to four weeks for the CAR T cells to be manufactured, and then, right after some chemo, we give patients back their CAR T cells, and within a month, we see that oftentimes, patients are in a complete remission.”
A month after Chuck’s infusion, he got the good news.
“She said, ‘You’re in remission.’ And that was kind of unbelievable to hear,” Chuck recalls.
Dr. Saddiqi expresses, “I would say cured. If you go beyond five years in his type of disease, we call it a cure.”
“Car T not only saved my life, but they gave me the same life. I had it before cancer and that is amazing,” Chuck exclaims.
Dr. Saddiqi says 40 to 45 percent of her non-Hodgkin lymphoma patients who had no other options, were saved and are alive five years after their remission due to the new CAR T cell therapy. City of Hope is one of the first four sites worldwide to enroll patients in the CAR T therapy trial. It has now been approved by the FDA for use in adults with aggressive lymphoma.
Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Producer; Roque Correa, Videograpgher & Editor.
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MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS
RESEARCH SUMMARY
TOPIC: CAR T CELLS SAVE CHUCK FROM NON-HODGKIN LYMPHOMA
REPORT: MB #5146
BACKGROUND: Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is a type of cancer that begins in your lymphatic system, which is part of the body’s germ-fighting immune system. In non-Hodgkin lymphoma, white blood cells called lymphocytes grow abnormally and can form growths, or tumors, throughout the body. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is a general category of lymphoma. There are many subtypes that fall in this category. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and follicular lymphoma are among the most common subtypes. The other general category of lymphoma is Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) is one of the most common cancers in the United States, accounting for about 4% of all cancers. About 80,470 people (44,120 males and 36,350 females) will be diagnosed with NHL this year, and About 20,250 people will die from this cancer (11,700males and 8,550 females).
(Sources: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/non-hodgkins-lymphoma/symptoms-causes/syc-20375680
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/non-hodgkin-lymphoma/about/key-statistics.html)
DIAGNOSING: Your doctor will likely ask you about your personal and family medical history. He or she may then have you undergo tests and procedures used to diagnose non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, including a physical exam, blood and urine tests, imaging tests, lymph node tests, a bone marrow test, and/or a lumbar puncture (or spinal tap). Some common signs and symptoms of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma include enlarged lymph nodes, chills, weight loss, fatigue, swollen abdomen, chest pain or pressure, shortness of breath, and/or easy bruising or bleeding.
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/non-hodgkin-lymphoma/detection-diagnosis-staging/signs-symptoms.html)
NEW TECHNOLOGY: CAR T cell therapy is a promising treatment for some patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) that has relapsed or has not responded to other therapies (refractory). It is a highly specialized therapy that involves genetically modifying a patient’s own T cells to attack their cancer. The FDA has approved several CAR Tcell therapies for lymphoma. Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center is one of the first centers to make the FDA-approved CAR T cell therapies available as standard of care to patients who have not had effective treatment options.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS REPORT, PLEASE CONTACT:
Zen Logsdon
If this story or any other Ivanhoe story has impacted your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Marjorie Bekaert Thomas at mthomas@ivanhoe.com
