What is CAR-T Cell Therapy?

Dr. Madiha Iqbal, a Mayo Clinic hematologist and oncologist, explains that CAR-T cell therapy is a personalized and innovative treatment giving hope to patients diagnosed with various lymphomas.

"Lymphoma in plain terms is essentially a cancer of your immune system," says Dr. Iqbal.

Patients who are newly diagnosed with lymphoma are offered a combination of chemotherapy and antibody-based treatments. But for those who do not respond to two or more lines of such treatments, CAR-T cell therapy may be an option.

"Prior to the advent of CAR-T cell therapy, patients who had failed two lines of chemotherapy had a very poor survival of around six months," says Dr. Iqbal.

Receiving CAR-T cell therapy can take a few weeks as a patient's T cells, which normally help fight off infections, are collected and genetically engineered to target lymphoma.

After low-dose chemotherapy, the modified cells are infused back into the patient. These cells can then attack and destroy the lymphoma.

"Patients who had a very poor prognosis can now potentially be cured of their disease," says Dr. Iqbal.