Short diary to report breaking news on the front of fighting lymphomas with gene therapy:
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the second in a radically new class of treatments that genetically reboot a patient’s own immune cells to kill cancer.
The new therapy, Yescarta, made by Kite Pharma, was approved for adults with aggressive forms of a blood cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, who have undergone two regimens of chemotherapy that failed.
The treatment is aggressive, with some nasty side effects, but the results are absolutely astounding:
“You don’t even recognize your family members,” Ms. Bureau said. “I had some bleeding on my brain, and had to be put in intensive care. The week it was happening, I don’t remember a lot. It was much more difficult for my family than me.”
Within a month, she had a complete remission, which has continued. She is back at work, full-time.