Woman Remains Cancer-Free 18-Plus Years After CAR T-Cell Therapy

A woman who received chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for neuroblastoma as a girl in 2006 is in complete remission more than 18 years later, according to a long-term follow up report published in Nature Medicine. She was part of a phase I study, conducted between 2004 and 2009 at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, in which 19 children with neuroblastoma, a nerve-cell cancer, were treated with infusions of first-generation CARs targeting GD2. Although 12 died between 2 months and 7 years after infusion due to relapsed disease, the remaining seven are alive as of their last follow-up: in addition to the woman, one patient was lost to follow-up after 8 years and five are disease-free at follow-up 10 to 15 years after treatment. The woman never required any other therapy and has given birth to two healthy infants.