Learn About CAR T Therapy in Australia
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.3,4 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
Find out how CAR T therapy works on the next page >
Frequently Asked Questions
CAR T cell therapy is a personalised form of immunotherapy that uses the patient’s immune system to target cancer cells.11 Unlike other kinds of cancer treatment, it is made from T cells, which are a type of white blood cell.11 The job of T cells is to target and remove bacteria, viruses and cancerous cells.11,12 However, in some cases, cancerous cells have ways of hiding from T cells, which makes it difficult for the body to fight the cancer.11
CAR T cell treatment is considered a highly specialised therapy. These types of therapies are assessed for public funding (reimbursement) by the Commonwealth Government’s Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC) and are jointly funded by the Commonwealth and state and territory health departments.
Different treatments are available to different people depending on their stage and type of blood cancer. These may include chemotherapy, radiotherapy, stem cell transplant, immunotherapy and CAR T therapy.3 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
CAR T cell cancer treatment may be an option if certain cancer treatments haven’t worked, or the cancer has returned after treatment.2,4
CAR T treatment for lymphoma uses T cells that have been re-engineered to make them better able to find and destroy cancer cells.11 Currently, CAR T cancer treatment is designed to be a “once-only” treatment because the engineered T cells, once infused, can persist in the body and continue to target and destroy cancer cells.4,11
No, the first CAR T therapy was registered overseas in 2017.14 CAR T lymphoma treatment has since become the standard of care for some forms of lymphoma and leukaemia.14,15 Thousands of patients have been treated worldwide with a CAR T product, and many more new CAR T therapies are being investigated in clinical trials.16,17