A child with leukemia made a complete recovery with treatment with a new therapy called CAR-T 19.
This is news that has brought hope to the hearts of thousands of families. And it happened at the hospital Sant Joan de Déu in Esplugues de Llobregat in Barcelona. The first pediatric patient to overcome leukemia has been successfully treated with a new therapy called CAR-T 19 therapy. This therapy is a type of immunotherapy funded by the Ministry of Public Health and Approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA)
Alvaro, 6 years old
The patient is a six-and-a-half-year-old boy named Álvaro who is unable to live a normal life due to cancer. He required chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. Now, after so much struggle and suffering He will be able to live a normal life again.
A little boy from Alicante He has been sick with acute lymphoblastic leukemia since he was 23 months old. He had two relapses. But since December last year He received this new type of therapy. And now he’s recovered. He will need care for 15 years, but he is now able to lead a normal family life. He will be able to do anything he wanted to do as a child!
National Health System
The National Health System announced a few months ago that it would fund two commercial CAR-T cell treatments from two pharmaceutical companies. To treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children and young adults aged up to 25 years, respectively.
It is expected that the state will publicly fund CAR-T therapy, a treatment produced by Hospital Clínic of Barcelona and Sant Joan de Déu, which is still in process. “clinical trial” This therapy represents a medical revolution because it may be the answer to treating leukemia in patients like in little Álvaro’s case.
Kimriah from Novartis is the CAR-T 19 therapy that helped treat Álvaro And with only one currently being funded by Health, this is an encouraging example of how medicine can be tailored to treat cancer. And in this case, it is the treatment of lymphatic leukemia. This is a very common type of cancer in children.
CAR-T 19 therapy consists of three types of therapy: cell therapy, genetics, and immunotherapy.Progress has been made against leukemia.
Susanna Rives is a hematologist from Sant Joan de Déu and she comments that since 2016, 26 patients have participated in clinical trials with this type of therapy. And 80% of patients recovered. Two years later, 62% of recovered patients were still healthy.
CAR-T 19 therapy consists of three types of therapy: cellular, genetic, and immunotherapy. This therapy uses a blood sample (apheresis, a technique that allows blood components to be separated) to extract T lymphocytes. They are genetically modified. T cells are reprogrammed They are again administered to the patient. Its job is to identify and destroy cancerous tumors. In this case, it can recognize the tumor molecule CD19 (common to leukemia and lymphoma B) and destroy it.
This is good news. Because sometimes if applied to mild disease stages such as other hematological cancers can be successful as well The next thing we want to treat with this type of therapy is myeloma (cancer of the plasma cells of the bone marrow).
Quality of life will be good after this treatment. And even then it is not perfect as there are some complications such as potential organ toxicity or neurological problems. But it can come back again. Practitioners want to know if this type of treatment can be used for solid tumors. Because these things have many obstacles. And this type of treatment may not reach the tumor itself.
This is no doubt good news for the medical world and especially for Alvaro’s family, who today has recovered, although he will have to undergo a check-up to see that all is well.