Originally posted on ScienceLife on October 18, 2017 by John Easton
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved the use of a breakthrough cancer treatment — Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel) — for adult patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, a form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Approval came just weeks after making the therapy available for pediatric and young adult patients with the most common form of leukemia.
The treatment, known as CAR T-cell therapy, is being offered by the University of Chicago Medicine, the first site in Chicago and Illinois to be certified by both Kite Pharma Inc. and Novartis. The FDA requires special certification for sites offering CAR T-cell therapy, and only specially trained hospitals and clinics will be part of the network of treatment centers.
UChicago Medicine has treated 11 adult patients since May 2016 in clinical trials leading to FDA approval of this innovative approach.