| | FEBRUARY - 20238UTLOOKHealthcare Tech | | FEBRUARY - 20238UTLOOKHealthcare Tech IN MY OPINIONCancer disease, which is increasing in society today, is a great concern. Therefore, finding safe and effective alternative treatments has become one of the main goals of researchers around the world. One of these alternative approaches, called immunotherapy, uses and activates components of the immune system such as antibodies, dendritic cells and T lymphocytes to fight cancer. In particular, T lymphocytes have a critical role in the identification of tumor-specific antigens. For this reason, using the power of the patient's own immune system to destroy cancerous cells is discussed within the scope of immunotherapy.Immunotherapy methods have fewer side effects than traditional chemotherapies, but it cannot be said that they are completely without side effects. Side effects may be observed due to over activation of the immune system, which may sometimes required is continuation of treatment or it can make the tumor appear larger than it is, causing confusion. Despite all its success, immunotherapy still works for a certain period of time in a certain group of patients; that is, the response to treatment varies from person to person. Of course, it is important to do something to increase the effect of the treatments given; first of all, whatever is done to make the immune system strong -normally- should be continued.Current cellular immunotherapeutic products for cancer are not effective for achieving complete remission, although they do improve survival to some extent. This is mainly because immune cells are stimulated against cancer cells, but they have low-affinity receptors for cancerous cells. Immunotherapy started with Coley's toxin and continued with adoptive immunotherapy, and today CAR technology has entered the field of modern medicine. By using this technology, it is aimed to produce T cells with higher receptor affinity with more effective results.Chimeric antigen receptor-T (CAR-T) cell therapy is a promising new T-cell immunotherapy in cancer therapies. Chimeric antigen receptor T cells are T cells that have been genetically engineered to produce an artificial T cell receptor for use in immunotherapy. Chimeric antigen receptors are receptor proteins designed to give T cells the new ability to target a particular protein. CAR-T cell therapy has been used in the treatment of hematological cancers predominantly, including acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), chroniclymphocytic leukemia (CLL), lymphoma (Lymphcancer), multiple myeloma (bone marrow cancer). On the other hand, it shows great promise in the treatment of solid tumors such as melanoma (skin cancer), breast cancer and sarcoma (tumor formed in the connective tissue).Therapy is started with drawing blood from patients and isolating T cells. Next, the T cells are genetically engineered in a lab using lentivirus/retrovirus or sleeping beauty to produce receptors called chimeric antigen receptors or CARs on By Derya DLEK KANÇAI, PhD, Laboratory Manager, Acibadem Labcell Cellular Therapy Center, Acibadem Healthcare GroupTHE FUTURE OF IMMUNOTHERAPY: CART CELLS
< Page 7 | Page 9 >