Dendritic and T- Cell Therapy

T- cell therapy is a type of immunotherapy that is used to alter T cells to fight against cancer. T cells are collected from the blood and modified to be able to produce chimeric antigen receptors or CARs on their surface. When this is reintroduced into the patient with cancer, they attach onto a specific antigen on the tumor cells and destroy them. Right now, CAR T-cell therapy is approved to be used against aggressive, refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma and relapsed or refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia up to age 25. With this kind of therapy being highly specialized and personalized, only a few cancer centers have it.

Dendritic cell therapy is like a cancer vaccine that is made from an individuals own blood. The dendritic cells taken from the blood are trained and multiplied to recognize the exact cancer to the specific immune system. This will allow the immune system to be strengthened and boost the body’s potential for working against cancer. So technically this would be a tailored cancer treatment vaccine. In 2018, there was 1,400 cases of melanoma patients that had been treated and 900 cases of a variety of cancers such as urological, intestinal, brain, breast, and lung. During this therapy, there was tumor shrinkage and stabilization of the disease.

Along with this good news comes some bad. Specifically in T-cell therapy there are side effects that include cytokine release syndrome, a large release of cytokines that triggers an inflammatory response causing flu like symptoms, and neurological difficulties, such as confusion and difficulty understanding language and speaking. Also, CAR T- cell therapy is estimated to be as much as $375,000. For dendritic cell therapy it cost about $18,500 per set of injections. For these treatments, there is never a guarantee that insurance will pay for them. There are many cases of cancer, and I personally have had this disease affect many of my family and close friends. It is nice to know that there are treatments being made to prolong life and even get rid of cancer for good even when there are risks.