On May 10th, Ms. Wang was glad to see that the oncoprotein in her body totally disappeared. Wang the patient, who had experienced all existing treatments for multiple myeloma, miraculously, escaped from the grip of the death.
Four years ago, when Wang was working in Beijing, she felt an unbearable backache but didn’t go to hospital immediately. One month later, she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma Ⅲ, which is a kind of hematological malignancies occurring mainly in elder people and will cause pain，hypercalcemia，and renal function damage, etc.
At that time, the cancer cells had already damaged Wang’s lumbar vertebra, and what’s worse, she also suffered in anemia and infection. With the thorough chemotherapy regimen designed by Professor Zhou Jianfeng of Tongji Hospital, Wang temporarily recovered. Unfortunately, because of the polyclone of cells and the drug resistance, Wang’s cancer recurred.
“CAR-T therapy, fight to live or die !’ Zhou Jianfeng made the decision.
“In recent years, most patients do temporally relieve after the application of new drugs and chemotherapy. But the therapy will cause recurrence and drug resistance, which we have no better way to fight against. ”said Professor Zhou.
CAR-T therapy is a kind of adoptive cellular immunotherapy. Clinically, the T cells of the patient will be cultivated into CAR-T cells, which can recognize and extinguish the cancer cells. Then the CAR-T cells will be transfused back into the body to destroy the cancer cells until the latter are extinguished. The CAR-T therapy has been reported to be used in the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM) in other countries.
Live or die, Wang decided to try the CAR-T cell treatment immediately. On February 22, the doctors extract her T cells and cultivated them into qualified warriors. On March 10, the doctors transfused large doses of CAR-T cells into Ms. Wang’s body.
Professor Li Chunrui, the doctor in charge of Ms. Wang, introduced that the CAR-T cell transfusion will cause a dilemma situation. On one hand, the CAR-T cells will release a large amount of cytokines, which if overdosed, will cause high fever, even low blood pressure and respiratory failure. On the other hand, to cure the multiple myeloma, the patient must be injected overdosed CAR-T cells. We have to take the risk”
To their surprise, the treatment progressed smoothly. Ms. Wang only suffered a low fever and slight sick, and the symptoms were soon controlled. Two weeks later, the amount of albumin in her body increased and globulin decreased to normal range.
This success encouraged Professor Zhou’s team. The CAR-T cell therapy is new but proved to be effective. It can prolong the patients’ life maximum. For patients suffering from recurrence and drug invalidity, CAR-T brings new hope to them.
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