CAR T-cell therapy at MD Anderson

12-24-2019

MD Anderson’s CARTOX Program, which oversees care for the hospital’s CAR T-cell therapy patients, is the first stand-alone immune effector cellular therapy program to earn accreditation from the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy.

Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is a type of immunotherapy that changes a patient’s own T cells so they are able to recognize and attack cancer.

After years of clinical trials, in 2017 the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of two CAR T-cell therapies.

Kymriah is for pediatric and young adult patients age 25 or younger with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. It has also been approved for adult patients with certain types of large B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma who have relapsed on not responded to standard treatments.

Yescarta has been approved for patients with large B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma that has relapsed or does not respond to standard treatments.