For patients fighting aggressive blood cancers like B-cell lymphoma or acute lymphoblastic leukemia, treatment choices become very limited, especially when the cancer comes back or stops responding to standard therapies. Chimeric Antigen Receptor or CAR-T cell therapy offers hope to such cancer patients. It is a new innovative therapy, for cancers like relapsed or refractory B-cell lymphoma, leukemia, and multiple myeloma, which has recently been made available in India.
With nearly 300 such procedures completed across India to date, Yatharth Hospital, Noida Extension, is the first hospital in the region to perform CAR-T Cell Therapy for a cancer patient. The procedure was conducted on a 35-year-old young man from Iraq by Dr. Pawan Kumar Singh, Group Director - Haemato-Oncology & Bone Marrow Transplant. The patient presented to Yatharth Hospital with relapsed intestinal Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma, who was initially treated in Iraq with multiple lines of chemotherapy. CAR-T cell therapy was administered to him successfully at Yatharth Hospital, and the patient was discharged in a stable condition.
This case represents not just a personal triumph but also a significant step forward for advanced oncology care in India, offering a world-class therapy at nearly 1/20th the cost compared to Western countries.
Mr. Yatharth Tyagi, Director, Yatharth Group of Hospitals, expressed his enthusiasm on this achievement, “The successful administration of CAR-T cell therapy marks a significant milestone in our commitment to delivering advanced cancer care. We are proud to be among the select few centres in the country offering this revolutionary therapy, further underscoring our dedication to clinical excellence and adherence to global healthcare standards.”
Dr. Pawan Kumar Singh, while explaining the therapy, stated, “CAR-T cell therapy is a targeted, highly selective with minimal side effects, designed to effectively treat certain types of blood cancer. It harnesses the patient’s own immune cells, specifically T-cells, which are separated from the white blood cells, genetically modified, and then infused back into the patient. These modified T-cells carry a Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) that enables them to recognize and destroy cancer cells specifically.”