JOE RAEDLE/GETTYĪnother remarkable genetic engineering feat was reported in the journal Nature in November. Natalia Reyes visits registered nurse practitioner Rachel Eisenberg for a checkup at a Planned Parenthood health center on Jin West Palm Beach, Florida. The cost: a staggering $373,000 per patient for the lymphoma treatment and $475,000 for leukemia. This approach is the epitome of personalized medicine.Īnimal experiments suggest that CAR-T therapy could transform the treatment of other kinds of cancers as well, but the Brave New World of high-tech medicine won’t come cheap. This is the second such approved treatment: a different CAR-T therapy for a form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia was given the green light by regulators in August. The modified cells are then infused back into the patient. In a complex, multi-step process, it involves removing immune system cells known as T cells from each patient and sending them to a highly specialized manufacturing center where they are genetically altered to include a new gene that directs the T cells to target and kill the cancer cells. The most recent cancer breakthrough, a treatment for advanced lymphoma called “CAR-T” approved by the FDA in October, is an utterly astonishing tour de force.
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