Fudan Cancer Hospital's first car-T therapy successfully treated patients with refractory lymphoma

Photo by Liu Yanbing

"The lesions on PET/CT are gone. You can see the high-intake stove shown on the film before, and now it's gone! Recently, in the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Fudan University (Pudong Campus), Professor Zhang Jian, Director of the Phase I Clinical Trial Ward, Professor Ji Dongmei and Dr. Shen Weina of the Lymphoma Professional Group brought long-awaited good news to Aunt Teng, a patient with lymphoma recurrence and metastasis: CAR-T cell immunotherapy has taken effect!

At the beginning of the year, Aunt Teng unexpectedly found herself suffering from lymphoma, and after going to the hospital for treatment, her condition was partially controlled; however, despite the rescue treatment, the remaining lesions developed rapidly in a short period of time. Aunt Teng suffered a pathological fracture due to the cancer cells affecting the bones of her whole body, and she was unable to walk in pain and could only sit in a wheelchair.

After evaluation, the lymphoma treatment team of the cancer hospital found that the conventional treatment plan could no longer take effect on Aunt Teng's condition. "Aunt Teng is refractory lymphoma, even with newer targeted therapy and other solutions is difficult to benefit," Zhang Jian said, "after the full evaluation of our hospital's lymphoma multidisciplinary comprehensive treatment team, we have provided Aunt Teng with the next step of treatment suggestions, and the newly listed CAR-T cell immunotherapy is one of the treatment options." ”

According to reports, the full name of CAR-T cell therapy is "chimeric antigen receptor T cell immunotherapy". Among them, CAR refers to chimeric antigen receptors, and its principle is to activate the body's autoimmune T lymphocytes first. In this therapy, THE CAR is loaded onto the surface of the T lymphocytes and fights in tandem with the T cells, the CAR is equivalent to a set of "GPS navigation system", which can accurately identify the antigens unique to the surface of the tumor cells, and the T lymphocytes as the "immune army" will actively eliminate these "bad molecules" - that is, use the body's own immune system to clear cancer cells and achieve therapeutic effects.

After full understanding and consideration, Aunt Teng's family decided to receive CAR-T cell immunotherapy at the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Fudan University. Zhu Zhengfei, director of the clinical research center, also actively coordinated the formation of MDT by various departments to participate in the diagnosis and treatment process of Aunt Teng, he said that the success of CAR-T therapy requires extremely strict full management, first of all, with the assistance of experienced medical team, to complete the collection of human T lymphocytes, through in vitro expansion and then further processing, and then the T cells equipped with "GPS" are reinfused back into the human body to complete the key treatment process.

In early October, Aunt Teng completed the first stage of T cell collection, and in November, T cells were successfully infused. Under the close attention of the medical team in the phase I clinical trial ward, aunt Teng did not have obvious adverse reactions after the infusion. "At present, Aunt Teng's various examination indicators have returned to normal, and all aspects of imaging are satisfactory," Ji Dongmei said, "which shows that CAR-T cell immunotherapy has taken effect on Aunt Teng!" Of course, this is still a month after treatment, and aunt Teng will need to further observe the treatment effect through continuous follow-up in the future. ”

"CAR-T cell immunotherapy is a treatment with a very high degree of social concern in recent years." Shen Weina said, "CAR-T cell immunotherapy is currently mainly used clinically to treat lymphoma patients with relapse of first-line treatment and lack of second-line treatment options. Medications should be fully evaluated by experienced medical institutions. ”

Zhang Jian said that in addition to independently carrying out CAR-T research, the Phase I clinical trial ward of Fudan University Affiliated Cancer Hospital has also cooperated with pancreatic surgery, tumor gynecology, head and neck surgery, and bone and soft tissue surgery to launch many clinical trials of CAR-T-like cellular immunotherapy. Cell therapy has penetrated into the field of solid tumors, which is the hot and difficult point of the current international tumor treatment, and there will be breakthroughs in the future.

Correspondent Wang Guangzhao Xinmin Evening News reporter Zuo Yan