The Parisian hospitals of Saint-Louis and Robert-Debré will develop immunotherapy based on CAR-T cells, a new very effective treatment to fight against severe forms of several cancers. A therapeutic revolution.
The American cancer association ASCO had spoken of it as the “discovery of the year” at its congress in June. Limmunotherapy based on CAR-T cells (pronounced “car-ti-cell-se”), a new treatment developed in the United States which is very effective in combating severe forms of several cancers, is (finally) appearing in France .
The Parisian hospitals of Saint-Louis and Robert-Debré have indeed been labeled to develop these drugs in the treatment of acute leukemia and lymphomas. If this medical advance is revolutionary, it is because the remission rate exceeds 80%, for example, in those under 25 with acute leukemia refractory to conventional treatment.
The concept of CAR-T cells
Until now, it was necessary to poison the malignant cells to destroy them, all without killing the patient by inadvertently attacking his healthy cells. This task was made easier by the fact that malignant cells, multiplying faster than others, absorbed more chemotherapy than healthy cells. Then the researchers developed immune cells capable of tracking and directly attacking cancer cells, the CAR-T Cells. Initially developed in acute leukemia in children, there are also specific CAR-T cells for various blood cancers in adults (myeloma, lymphoma, etc.).
More specifically, this therapy consists of genetically modifying certain immune cells called T lymphocytes in the laboratory, in order to provide them with a receptor (CAR) to track down cancer cells and destroy them. “We use the immune system to manufacture a tailor-made drug,” explains the Parisian Doctor Sophie Bernard, onco-hematologist at the Paris Saint-Louis hospital. “They are in an exponential dynamic, in particular for the treatment of refractory lymphoma, the sixth cancer in France in adults”. State-of-the-art treatment, therefore, more precise than any other existing therapy.
“The goal is to have a kind of large ‘army’ of lymphocytes that can quickly recognize cells that are not healthy, so that they can fight them.” more effectively, details in turn to franceinfo Professor Nicolas Boissel, hematologist at Saint-Louis hospital. “In the immune system, these lymphocytes already have this role: we are only offering them a new weapon to destroy cancer cells more effectively.”
Another benefit and not the least: in addition to their formidable efficiency, these cells have a long lifespan since they have the capacity to eradicate cancer cells which would reappear after several months, or even several years. The oldest patient treated with this technique was treated more than 7 years ago. The cells stay in the patient’s body and are therefore ready to act as soon as the slightest cancer cell resurfaces.
Encouraging results in France
In France, only around thirty patients have benefited from it as part of a clinical trial. Each year, 400 new cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children and adolescents are treated at the Robert-Debré hospital. Often she heals well. Otherwise, the CAR-T cells will now be ready to attack. “The very first child was treated in June 2016. She is doing very well. Another thing, thanks to a single injection, the CAR-T avoid barbaric and very heavy treatments “, explains to Parisian Professor André Baruchel, the head of the hematology service which treats children.
35,000 new blood cancers are diagnosed each year in France, in adults, adolescents and children. A 40% complete remission rate is observed 15 months after treatment with CAR-T cells in patients with refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.
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