Baylor University Medical Center, a part of Baylor Scott & White Health, and Texas Oncology today announced they are now offering CAR-T cancer therapy to treat diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). These providers are working together and are among the first in the nation to treat patients with the only CAR-T cell therapy approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat this form of cancer.
Chimeric Antigen Receptor T cell therapy, or CAR-T, is a personalized therapy where a patient's own immune cells are removed from the patient's body, genetically reprogrammed, then infused back into the patient to identify and attack their cancer as a one-time treatment. The CAR-T therapy offered at Baylor University Medical Center reprograms the patient's cells to attack DLBCL, which is the most common and aggressive form of lymphoma that accounts for 25 to 30 percent of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cases in the United States. It is used to treat adult patients who have not responded or who have relapsed after two other kinds of treatment.
"This could be a game-changing treatment for patients whose cancer has not responded to other treatment options," said Yair Levy, MD, medical oncologist at Texas Oncology and medical director of hematologic malignancy clinical research at Baylor University Medical Center. "It is an important advancement in cancer care to bring this next-generation treatment to North Texas that has shown promising results in treating patients with large B-cell lymphoma during both clinical trials and active treatments to date."
Baylor University Medical Center is the only center in North Texas and the second facility in the state to provide this ground-breaking therapy commercially for this form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The therapy, known as Yescarta, is the only CAR-T therapy for DLBCL currently approved by the FDA and is manufactured by Kite, a Gilead Sciences, Inc. company. A multidisciplinary selection committee will help guide the process for determining eligible patients for this new therapy, which takes into consideration clinical testing based on past clinical trial criteria and FDA guidelines.
While there is only one FDA approved CAR-T therapy offered at Baylor Scott & White Health, Baylor Scott & White Research Institute and Texas Oncology are currently conducting clinical trials to test CAR-T therapies for three additional forms of cancer. More information about other CAR-T studies underway can be found at BSWHealth.com/DallasCancer and TexasOncology.com/CAR-T-Therapy.
"This is a completely different way of treating cancer and early results have shown it to be one of the most potent therapies ever tested for these patients," said Houston Holmes, MD, medical director and principal investigator for CAR-T clinical trials at Texas Oncology and oncologist on the medical staff at Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center.
To refer a patient for CAR-T consultation call 214.370.1999. To learn more about CAR-T clinical trials, call 214.820.3535.
Learn More:
ScrubbingIn Blog: CAR-T therapy: Genetically re-engineering your cells to target cancer
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About Baylor Scott & White Health
As the largest not-for-profit health system in the state of Texas, Baylor Scott & White promotes the health and well-being of every individual, family and community it serves. It is committed to making quality care more accessible, convenient and affordable through its integrated delivery network, which includes the Baylor Scott & White Health Plan, Baylor Scott & White Research Institute, the Baylor Scott & White Quality Alliance and its leading digital health platform – MyBSWHealth. Through 51 hospitals and more than 1,200 access points, including flagship academic medical centers in Dallas, Fort Worth and Temple, the system offers the full continuum of care, from primary to award-winning specialty care. Founded as a Christian ministry of healing more than a century ago, Baylor Scott & White today serves more than three million Texans. For more information, visit: BSWHealth.com
