Updated information, the map of authorized centers and a look at the future of these revolutionary therapies in a campaign that will cross the country throughout 2022. Dozens of patients already treated in Italy, about five hundred possible candidates every year
Targeted, personalized, effective: CAR-T therapies turn ten years after the first arrival at the clinic for the therapy of haematological cancers and today they are an opportunity for an increasing number of patients. Thanks to the results obtained even in complex cases, they have raised great hopes, but it is a therapeutic option to be handled with care: to get to know them, to know where they are available and to understand their opportunities and limits, back in 2022, with a series of meetings on the territory and online initiatives, the itinerant information campaign CAR-T Future Destination promoted by the Italian Association against Leukemia, Lymphomas and Myeloma (AIL).
Information and comparison
After the stops in Rome, Milan and Bologna in 2021, the campaign restarts from Florence with two main objectives, as explained by the national councilor AIL Sergio Amadori: We want to stimulate a comparison between institutions and specialists for this innovation to be successful and we want to give correct and updated information to patients and their families: the arrival of CAR-T has opened new perspectives for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, lymphomas, myelomas and applications in numerous other cancers are being studied, but these therapies are not for everyone. Patients must have specific requirements, the Centers authorized to provide them must have precise characteristics: on the page dedicated to the campaign on the AIL website, you can learn more about the CAR-T and you can access an updated map of the facilities where they are available. Currently approved CAR-T therapy, now an option for those unresponsive to chemotherapy and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, includes a rigorous protocol to extract the patient’s T lymphocytesarm them with genetic engineering techniques so that they recognize cancer cells, then reinfuse them in the patient: a complex and personalized path that inevitably requires highly experienced structures.
Past and future
The good news that since the first use of CAR-T in the clinic, when little Emily was treated in the United States in 2012, great strides have been made: approved therapies increase year after yearthe side effects (which can also be serious) are being managed better and better, the centers in Italy have gone from three, four a few years ago to about thirty today. In our country there are already a few dozen patients on which CAR-T’s have been used and there are about five hundred possible candidates every year – says Amadori -. In the very near future, these therapies may be offered to a greater number of patients, but It is important that the advantages and limitations, possibilities and applications are well known. This is why our campaign continues throughout Italy, updating itself as news arrives from the research front, AIFA authorizations and clinical experiences. All information on the events planned for the next few months, which will take the campaign to six other cities across the country from North to South, can be found on the dedicated AIL website.
February 25, 2022 (change February 25, 2022 | 17:11)
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