A Lifeline for Blood Cancer

Innovative Treatments Are Harnessing Patients’ Own Cells to Power the Fight Against Cancer

For Justin, childhood was a challenging journey. At just 7 years old, Justin was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a type of blood cancer. After successfully completing his first three-year treatment plan, Justin’s cancer returned. Now a teenager, Justin has battled cancer for more than half his life, but miraculously, a new therapy to battle blood cancers like Justin’s was what ultimately put him in remission. As a CAR-T patient, Justin remains resilient and hopeful for his own future, as the treatment has given him new hope, even with the setbacks he’s faced. Now, other patients and families can have hope for their path to longer, healthier lives as well.

While patients and researchers battle disease every day, caregivers also play an essential role in the fight. For Amy, Justin’s mother, enduring her son’s initial diagnosis was incredibly difficult; the news that his cancer had returned was equally devastating. “I think every mom in that situation who's told that their child has cancer says, ‘No. Give me the cancer, because they're just a kid.’” But as science advanced thanks to researchers like Boris, Amy watched Justin’s body eradicate a cancer inside of him with the help of CAR-T therapy. As both mother and caregiver to Justin, Amy has been amazed by his own strength and the resilience of researchers relentlessly searching for answers about the body and new ways to attack disease.

Blood cancers spread differently in the body than other cancers. Certain blood cancers originate in bone marrow, which impacts how blood cells produce and function. The cancer then moves quickly to the blood, causing cancerous cells to spread throughout the body. Because most blood cancers can’t be prevented or screened for, the health care community is focused on finding cures. With CAR-T therapy, immune cells are extracted from a patient, genetically altered to better recognize and battle a particular cancer, and inserted back into the body to boost their own fighting power. Ultimately, these modified cells—often referred to as a “living drug”—may help eliminate the disease.

While still largely in trial phases, CAR-T therapies may one day be used to treat multiple diseases, including leukemia, myeloma, and brain tumors. Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved CAR-T therapies to treat certain children and young adults with a form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, as well as adult patients with relapsed non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Biopharmaceutical companies are leading exploration for these groundbreaking therapies to ultimately deliver them to the patients who need them. And while personalized medicine requires a highly technical, individualized approach, researchers are continually refining this therapy, and others, to improve their development and power results. Currently, there are more than 334 medicines in development to treat a variety of blood cancers. These gene and cell therapies represent a new class of medicine for immuno-oncology and a brighter future for patients battling cancer.

In this new era of medicine, researchers transform promising potential into lifesaving progress. Revolutionary “living drugs” like CAR-T represent the power personalized medicine has to combat diseases like cancer and help patients live fuller, longer lives. These new approaches to medicine do more than treat—they help give back time to patients like Justin and their families. And with researchers like Boris tirelessly working to break further ground in cancer research, the future is brighter than ever.