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CAR T in Australia

Learn About CAR T

Blood cancer progression can be daunting, and it’s normal for people to explore what this means for them and their future treatment.

This website introduces a type of therapy called CAR T cell therapy, sometimes called CAR T, which uses a patient’s own cells to fight cancer. It can be a treatment option for some people whose cancer progresses or comes back after previous therapy.

The information provided on this site is for awareness only. You should consult your healthcare provider and / or healthcare professional for more information.

Blood cancers and CAR T therapy

There are several different types of blood cancer, each with different symptoms, treatments and prognoses. CAR T therapy can be an option for some types of blood cancer, such as:¹

Leukaemia
Lymphoma
Myeloma

There are lots of treatments available for blood cancer, although sometimes treatment doesn’t work well, or stops working after a while. If one type of treatment doesn’t work or the cancer keeps coming back, it’s possible that another type of treatment could still work.²

Different treatments are available to different people depending on their stage and type of cancer. Some of the options could include chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy or stem cell transplant.³ If certain cancer treatments haven’t worked, or the cancer has returned after treatment, one of the options that might be available for consideration is CAR T therapy.⁴ Clinical trials also might offer other treatments that could be helpful.²

A number of treatment options are available to people with blood cancer.
These could include:⁴

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is a common treatment for many types of cancer. There are lots of different chemotherapy medications. They work by killing the cancer cells or stopping them from growing and replicating. They also kill some normal cells, but mostly these cells can recover.⁵

Radiotherapy

Radiotherapy is a form of therapy that uses x-rays to kill cancer cells. It is used to treat a variety of different cancers. Radiotherapy can be used by itself or in combination with other treatments to try and control the cancer and stop it growing.⁶

Stem Cell Transplant

Stem cells are cells that live in the bone marrow and grow into different types of blood cells and immune cells, so are very important for keeping us healthy. Stem cell transplant is when the unhealthy cells in the body are replaced with healthy stem cells, either because they are diseased or they have been damaged by chemotherapy.⁷

Immunotherapy

There are many different types of immunotherapies which work in different ways. They help the body’s own immune system fight the cancer using markers in the immune system or on the cancer cells. Immunotherapies are targeted to the cancer cells, unlike chemotherapy which acts more broadly.^8,9

CAR T therapy

CAR T therapy is a kind of individualised treatment that may be offered to some people with certain types of blood cancers. CAR stands for chimeric antigen receptor. CAR T therapy works by transforming cells from a person’s own immune system – specifically the T cells – to help them find and fight cancer cells.⁴

Clinical Trials

Clinical trials are studies that determine whether new drugs or therapies are safe and effective. Being part of a clinical trial can give people access to new treatments that could be life-changing. They also help to advance medical research and give more people the chance to benefit from new treatments.¹⁰

Find out how CAR T therapy works on the next page >

This website is intended for residents of Australia. This site has been made possible by Gilead Sciences.
©2024 Gilead Sciences Pty Ltd. Level 28, 385 Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3000. Date of preparation: April 2024. AU-UNB-0566. GILE0001/EMBC.