Secondary tumors caused by CAR-T cell therapy are very rare.

In some cases, CAR-T cell therapy can cause tumors secondary to the treatment. Several months ago, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it was assessing this risk. Now, a study conducted at Stanford University Medical Center (California, USA) has tracked the evolution of 724 patients who received this type of treatment since 2016. Of these, 14 developed another blood tumor, but only one was T-type. cellular lymphoma, which may be a direct consequence of therapy. Moreover, subsequent analyzes excluded this association. The results were published in the American journal NEJM (New England Journal of Medicine), one of the most prestigious in the world in the medical field.

CAR-T cell therapy is a type of cellular gene therapy that involves changing genes in T cells (a type of white blood cell, immune cell) to fight cancer.

Manel Juan, head of the immunology service at the Barcelona Hospital Clinic, who was not involved in the study but had access to it, notes that “this is a scientifically impeccable work that shows in black and white what others have already done.” shown: no concerns. “They are more than that, and secondary events are not very clearly related to the CAR-T therapy itself.” In statements to the SMC, he clarifies that restrictions are “dissipated globally when risks and benefits are assessed.”

Ignacio Melero, professor of immunology at the University of Navarra, told SMC that “the risk-benefit ratio is clearly very favorable if we are talking about the treatment of leukemias, lymphomas or myelomas, but it may become questionable for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, especially of all children.”