The treatment, called CAR T-cell therapy, re-engineers a patient’s own immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells. This July, FDA gave CAR T-cell therapy "breakthrough therapy" designation, which fast-tracks its path to FDA approval.
CAR T-cell therapy is a type of immunotherapy, a new wave of experimental and newly approved treatments that spur the immune system
to fight cancer like it does other illnesses. Immunotherapy dominated
talks at this year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting. Some
doctors and scientists are calling it the pathway to a cure. This year
the FDA has approved two more immunotherapy drugs for the treatment of melanoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, including pembrolizumab (marketed as Keytruda), which was approved for melanoma last month.
“We are supercharging the immune system”
says Lynn Schuchter, MD, chief of hematology oncology and an
immunotherapy researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. “This brings
a totally new dimension to attacking a cancer cell.”
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