In the British city of Rufin, Wales, a patient with terminal stage cancer is completely cured thanks to the best methods of fighting the disease. The Daily Mail reports.
Helen Wynne Hughes, 32, was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2018 when she was carrying her third child. Doctors discovered a grapefruit-sized tumor in her chest area. The patient started chemotherapy and gave birth ten weeks later.
Last fall, doctors told her that the cancer was not responding to treatment and had already spread to the bones, liver and lungs. “I was advised to prepare children for the worst,” she recalls.
Last Christmas, she gave the children small boxes of memorabilia so they would never forget her. “I had to tell them, ‘Apparently, this is your mom’s last Christmas.” They are still so small, it was very difficult for me to collect the commemorative boxes, “says Hughes.
The British woman was invited to try CAR-T-cell therapy in the fight against cancer, which was only recently approved by the UK National Health Service. “CAR-T was my last hope. I was ready to do anything,” she says.
Hughes spent five weeks at a cancer center in the English city of Manchester. She noted the side effects of the treatment, in particular the temporary memory loss. After the therapy, the family waited six months for the results of the treatment. “When the doctors said I had recovered, we all burst into tears. Ultimately the cancer was completely gone,” she said. “I prepared for the worst, but CAR-T cell therapy saved my life.”
CAR T cell therapy uses a chimeric antigen receptor to recognize malignant cells and destroy them. It is a protein that combines antibody fragments that selectively binds to certain antigens, and domains that activate the immune system. T cells from a patient are removed and genetically modified to carry the chimeric antigenic receptor CAR on their surface, which binds to the CD133 protein on glioblastoma cells. After modification, they are reintroduced into the patient’s body.
Last year, scientists at Stanford University in the USA named the CAR T-cell therapy is a revolutionary breakthrough in cancer immunotherapy. Researchers evaluated the effectiveness of therapy based on clinical data accumulated over previous years.