Sao Paulo, (EFE).- Brazil is advancing in the studies of cell therapies against leukemias (CAR-T), having achieved the milestone of a patient registering complete remission of a cancer with a treatment carried out in the public healthcare.
Paulo Peregrino, 61, happily shows off two MRIs of his torso, one riddled with dark spots from advanced-stage lymphoma and the other completely clear of cancer cells, two images taken barely a month apart.
Peregrino receives EFE in an apartment in Sao Paulo where he resides temporarily while he continues under medical observation and recounts that he resorted to this treatment, still experimental in Brazil, feeling that “he no longer had any other option.”
Thirteen years living with cancer
Gone are thirteen years in hospitals, first for prostate cancer that appeared in 2013 and then for lymphoma that arose in 2018 and resisted chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant.
Now, he is already making plans for his next birthday, in November, to celebrate that in recent months he was reborn “twice”, once due to overcoming lymphoma and another due to sepsis that brought him back to intensive care after therapy. cell phone.
Paulo is part of a group of 14 patients who have been treated since 2019 within the framework of experimental studies with CAR-T, carried out with public funds by the Hemocentro Foundation of the University of Sao Paulo, in collaboration with other public institutions.
Of the 14 patients, the vast majority presented complete or very significant tumor remission and only two died, numbers “similar” to those of other places where this therapy is applied, such as the United States and Europe, according to Dr. Vanderson. Rocha, who treated Peregrino.
a brazilian treatment
The director of Hemocentro, Dimas Covas, explained to EFE that cancer treatment has been developed comprehensively in Brazil, without ties to patents or commercial processes in other countries.
The objective is to make the treatment “more accessible” and can be offered through public health.
The next step will be taken in the second half of this year, when a larger clinical study is launched, with about 80 patients, which will serve to obtain the therapy’s health registration, something that will be achieved within a period of a anus.
In parallel, Hemocentro collaborates with other institutions, including the Instituto Butantan laboratory, to expand the production capacity of the cells.
A new manufacturing unit, which is already operational but does not yet produce the treatment, has the capacity to manufacture 300 treatments per year, although capacity is planned to be increased to meet forecast demand, according to Covas.
The cure for lymphomas
The researchers emphasize that the current therapy is only effective for B-cell leukemias and lymphomas, so it is not useful for any type of cancer, and it is only recommended in cases where traditional therapies have failed, such as chemotherapy and marrow transplants.
Cellular treatment has a high cost, around 2 million reais (about $406,000), but patients like Paulo Peregrino have not had to pay anything because it is a public program.
The technique consists of modifying the patient’s defense cells, the lymphocytes, in the laboratory so that they learn to eliminate the disease, and then the lymphocyte cocktail is injected into the body through a transfusion.
Covas explains that the CAR-T, in the opinion of many, could be “possibly the new frontier of cancer treatment” and in the future it will not only serve to stop lymphoma, but could also be applied to other types of cancer such as breast cancer. or intestine, something that can be “a great revolution.”