Mumbai: India has emerged as a leading healthcare player in cancer care with its own innovative immunotherapy, which costs just one-tenth of the traditional treatments offered abroad. The indigenously developed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy that genetically reengineers a patient’s immune system is now a new frontier treatment for blood cancers.
One of the newest, and very promising treatments, the therapy uses the body’s own immune system against cancer. Developed by IIT Bombay in collaboration with Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, the therapy was approved last year for commercial use by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO).
According to doctors, a new technology to treat blood cancer, CAR-T, which is around 99 percent effective on children, Dr Shirish Arya of Tata Hospital said.
Researchers have claimed that this technology will be useful when all the existing methods fail and has proved to be very effective even in older people.
"We have completed two-phase trials so far, in which about 100 people were included. The results of which have been quite substantial,” said Dr Arya.
Arya said that CAR-T cell technology is very effective in the treatment of advanced blood cell cancer. Being a targeted therapy, the desired results could be achieved, he added.
This technology will prove to be a panacea in the treatment of cancers that will not be cured by chemotherapy or other techniques, he said.
"Presently this technology has been provided to about 30 big hospitals across the country where mainly blood cancer patients are treated," Arya said.
Although six CAR T-cell therapies have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US for clinical use, they all contain antibody fragments derived from mice, which may sometimes trigger side effects. The Made in India therapy, however, involves modification of T-cells to carry a more human-like antibody. This humanised CAR T-cell therapy has been successful in escaping immune system attack.
Dr. Sudeep Gupta, Director, Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai, commended said Tata Memorial Centre is committed to fostering innovation, citing the example of CAR-T cell therapy which was also pioneered by Tata Memorial Centre recently in a similar collaborative effort.
Meanwhile Tata Memorial Hospital will also establish one of the world's largest therapeutic nuclear facility in the next two to three months at the Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research, and Education in Cancer (ACTREC) at Kharghar.
Dr Gupta, Director, Tata Memorial Centre, said the facility will have 41 hot beds and a cyclotron unit the latter in collaboration with Navi Mumbai-based Board of Radiation & Isotope Technology, an independent unit of the Department of Atomic Energy, which provides products and services based on radiation and isotopes for applications in healthcare, agriculture, research and industry.
"The new facility will be a game-changer in treating severe cancer patients. Currently we have five hot beds for radiation isotope treatment, which utilise radioactive substances to target and eliminate cancer cells," Dr Gupta said.
Dr Gupta emphasised the potential to increase recovery rates for advanced cases through this treatment. "The targeted use of specific isotopes emitting radiation, whether ingested, injected, or externally applied, allows for selective accumulation in tumours. This approach enables localised radiation therapy, minimising damage to healthy tissues and enhancing the precision of cancer treatment," he said.
What is CAR T-cell Therapy?
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is a cancer immunotherapy treatment that uses immune cells (T-cells) genetically reengineered in a laboratory to enable them in locating and destroying cancer cells more effectively.
Which cancers can this treat?
Currently, CAR T cell therapy is approved to treat several types of haematological malignancies, including leukemia (B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia), multiple myeloma and lymphoma. Common subtypes of lymphoma where this treatment is effective include diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, follicular lymphoma, high-grade B-cell lymphoma, mantle cell lymphoma and primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma.
