Wake Forest Baptist Health’s Comprehensive Cancer Center is now offering Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-Cell therapy, a personalized immunotherapy used to treat advanced lymphomas.
To administer the therapy, T cells, a type of white blood cells, are removed from a patient’s blood. These T cells are then genetically modified in a specialized lab to produce chimeric antigen receptors (CAR). CAR T cells are then given back to patients by infusion. Once infused back into the body, the CAR T cells bind to a specific target on the cancer cells and kill them.
On Monday, Aug. 10, the first Wake Forest Baptist patient received CAR T-Cell therapy.
“It’s a multi-step process,” said Rakhee Vaidya, M.D., an assistant professor of hematology and oncology at Wake Forest Baptist. “The therapy supercharges your immune cells to more effectively identify and destroy cancer cells.”
Wake Forest Baptist is the first center in the region to offer CAR T-Cell therapy. Wake Forest Baptist’s Comprehensive Cancer Center is one of only three NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in North Carolina and is accredited to provide cellular therapy by the Foundation for Accreditation for Cellular Therapy.
Media contacts:
Joe McCloskey, jmcclosk@wakehealth.edu, 336-716-1273
Myra Wright, mgwright@wakehealth.edu, 336-713-8806