First patient receives pioneering blood cancer treatment
The first patient at University Hospital Southampton (UHS) has started CAR T-cell therapy, a ground-breaking treatment that continues to be researched.
Patients at UHS with aggressive blood cancers will no longer need to be referred to London hospitals for CAR T-cell therapy, a new treatment that can greatly improve survival.
It comes after NHS England made the Wessex Bone Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy (BMT & CT) Programme at UHS one of the UK’s approved CAR T-cell therapy providers.
The team have worked extremely hard to gain this approval, including through their continuing involvement in research into the treatment.
Harnessing the immune system
CAR T-cell therapy is a type of cellular therapy. It helps the body’s own immune system recognise, seek out and destroy cancer cells.
Immune cells, called T cells, are taken from the patient’s blood. They are modified in a laboratory to make a protein known as a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR). This allows them to find and kill the cancer cells. They are then put back into the patient to fight the cancer.
In some patients, CAR T-cell therapy can eradicate very advanced blood cancer and keep it at bay for many years. However, it doesn’t work for all patients and can have serious side effects.
The first CAR T-cell therapy was approved in 2018 for some NHS patients with leukaemia or lymphoma. However, in October 2022 there were only 14 sites in the UK that could provide the treatment for adult patients, three of which are in London.
Positive research results
The UHS team’s achievement is partly due to their involvement in the TRANSFORM trial.
This investigated the effectiveness of the CAR T-cell therapy called lisocabtagene maraleucel for patients with large B cell lymphoma, an aggressive form of the blood cancer non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
For all patients who took part, standard cancer treatments had either not worked, or had worked but their cancer had since returned. Treatment options for these patients are limited.
The trial results, published last year in The Lancet, showed patients who received the CAR T-cell therapy as well as standard care had better survival.
If approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), this trial will add to the repertoire of CAR T-cell therapies the UHS team can offer these patients.
The team are also currently in the process of starting another two CAR T-cell therapy trials.
Whole team effort
The journey to becoming a CAR T-cell therapy provider has involved a huge amount of work from all the BMT & CT programme team, with support by the wider cancer care group.
They were awarded Joint Accreditation Committee ISCT-Europe & EBMT (JACIE) immune effector cell accreditation in 2019. In addition, collaborations with pharmacy, critical care and neurology have enabled them to position themselves to take on these new treatments.
It comes a year after they celebrated their 20th year of providing the BMT & CT service at UHS.
Sara Main, Lead Nurse for Bone Marrow Transplant and Cell Therapy, said:
“The first patient starting their treatment was a monumental day. It is the culmination of a huge amount of hard work, and demonstrates the team’s and care group’s commitment to continue to improve, work together and put patients first.”