Staff of the Inna Foundation continue to acquaint their readers with new achievements of humanity in the fight against cancer! The Japanese Ministry of Health has approved a new generation cancer drug, Kymriah, as reported today by the website of the Japanese TV channel NHK World (a public TV channel with a Russian-language version and international coverage of broadcasting via satellite operators). This drug will be the first drug approved in Japan to use CAR-T cell therapy. The drug was developed by the famous Swiss company Novartis. What is this drug, what is its peculiarity and how can it lead to a fundamentally new stage in the fight against cancer? We decided to look into this issue. First, about when the new therapy is used. Kymriah is used to treat B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. This is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow that causes the body to produce too many white blood cells (B-lymphocytes). The structure of such leukocytes is broken, and they can no longer perform their functions: recognize infections and regulate the immune system. This type of leukemia is the most common type of malignancy in children. Mortality is one of the highest of all types of cancer. The main method of treatment today is bone marrow transplantation! But this is a very problematic type of treatment for Ukraine, since in some cases, due to the backwardness of domestic medicine, it is not possible to perform such an operation. Therefore, it is important that Kymriah is used after a relapse of the disease or if there are no results during treatment! What is the peculiarity of the new therapy? The peculiarity of the new therapy is that it is a genetically modified autologous T-cell immunotherapy. A sample of his own T-lymphocytes (these cells are responsible for fighting tumors) is taken from the patient and a genetic construct based on a harmless virus is introduced into them. The finished product is injected back into the patient’s body. Genetically modified T-lymphocytes contain a new protein – chimeric antigen receptor or CAR, which helps them find and specifically destroy deadly B-lymphocytes. Although Japan today approved a new type of treatment, this country did not pioneer the use of this therapy! Just over a year ago, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved this drug for the treatment of children. It should be noted that blood cancer is the most common type of cancer in the United States among children. After scouring the FDA website, we found the opinion of FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, on the new treatment. He said: “We are entering a new phase of medical innovation with the ability to reprogram a patient’s own cells to attack deadly cancer. New technologies such as gene and cell therapy have the potential to transform medicine. and create the opportunity to treat and cure many previously incurable diseases”. In clinical trials, an incredibly high percentage of remission within 3 months in patients was shown – 83%. Thus, humanity is getting closer and closer to being able to successfully fight cancer. However, we want to immediately warn questions about the possibility of using this type of treatment in Ukraine. Most likely, such a treatment in the near future does not have to wait. Treatment is expensive. The cost of a course (single injection) of Kymria gene therapy costs about $475,000. However, it is worth waiting for gene therapy to give a new impetus to the fight against cancer and help save the lives of thousands of children!
