The Government of São Paulo launched this Tuesday (14) a program that provides for the large-scale production of a gene therapy against cancer known as CAR-T Cell, that fights the disease using the patient’s own defense cells.
According to the state, the initiative should become the largest program to fight cancer in Latin America.
The treatment, which has already shown promise in the fight against diseases such as leukemia and helped in the remission of a lymphoma in a terminally ill patient, is the result of studies by the Cell Therapy Center (CTC-Fapesp-USP) in Ribeirão Preto and is carried out in partnership with teams from the Butantan Institute and the USP School of Medicine.
It will be carried out at the Nucleus of Cellular and Molecular Therapy (Nucel), in São Paulo, and at the two new cell therapy centers located in São Paulo and Ribeirão Preto, with the capacity to initially serve up to 300 patients per year.
In addition to producing and developing, these units will be able to store and apply cell therapy to patients, in order to reduce treatment costs, which today are around US$ 500,000. [cerca de R$ 2,5 milhões] per patient, according to the São Paulo government.
Quality control laboratories, cryopreservation rooms, virus production and CAR-T cell production will be part of the structure.
The therapy is based on T lymphocytes, the body’s defense cells that are isolated and reprogrammed to identify and fight cancer and takes place in stages:
- patient’s blood collection
- isolation of T lymphocytes from the sample
- activation and multiplication of T lymphocytes in the laboratory
- creation of CAR-T cells through contact between lymphocytes and a harmless viral vector to the organism that identifies cancer cell receptor
- freezing and quality control of CAR-T cells
- application of cells through blood transfusion
In 2017, the technique was approved by the FDA, the US regulatory agency. In Brazil, the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) this year approved the first health record of gene therapy against hematological cancer, originating in blood cells.
But, in general, it has been applied in an experimental way in the country and in a compassionate way, that is, when, in a very advanced stage of the disease, it is the last alternative of treatment and by medical decision.
| Ribeirao Preto and France