Medicare Now Covers CAR T-Cell Therapy for Approved Cancers

A promising and expensive type of immunotherapy, called CAR T-cell therapy, is now covered by Medicare. This news may affect mesothelioma patients in the future. Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell, or CAR T-cell, therapy involves the laboratory reprogramming of a patient’s T cells, which are a type of white blood cell responsible for protecting the body against infection and disease. The T cells are genetically modified to better recognize and attack cancer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the immunotherapy procedure for non-Hodgkin lymphoma and B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia. It is still in the experimental phase for many other cancers, including mesothelioma, the rare cancer caused by asbestos exposure. Dr. Prasad Adusumilli at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center told The Mesothelioma Center at Asbestos.com that CAR T-cell therapy will “change the paradigm of treating mesothelioma.” Adusumilli is the primary investigator of a phase I clinical trial testing the safety of different doses of modified T cells for patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma. The trial is estimated to conclude in April 2020. “We are seeing results now,” he said. “We are going in the right direction.” CAR-T for Mesothelioma Available Through Clinical Trials CAR T-cell therapy is estimated to cost between $375,000 and $475,000. Currently, that high price tag doesn’t apply to mesothelioma patients, who can only access the complicated treatmen...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Source Type: news