Anvisa authorized the Fundação Hemocentro de Ribeirão Preto and the Butantan Institute to begin testing, on humans, a treatment that uses the patient’s own modified cells to fight cancer.
Publicist and writer Paulo Peregrino discovered five years ago that he had lymphatic cancer. He underwent chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, but, in 2021, an exam indicated that the disease had advanced. Without losing hope, he took part in research at the Ribeirão Preto Blood Center using genetically modified cells.
The images show the progress of the treatment: the dark spots are nodules that appear in various parts of the body. Thirty days later, the result is that the tumors are disappearing.
“For me, this is an absurd gain, in my mind. It strengthens me even more so I can keep spreading the word, do things, keep sharing this. Because a lot of people are having much more hope now than they did with my story”, says Paulo.
Pioneering research in Brazil, like the one that treated Paulo, began in 2019. In this new therapy, scientists collect lymphocytes – which are the patient’s own defense cells – and, in the laboratory, modify their genetic material so that they learn to identify cancer-causing cells and multiply. When they are returned by the millions to the patient’s bloodstream, these modified cells – known as CAR-T – start to specifically attack the cancer cells, leading to the extinction of the tumor.
Anvisa, the National Health Surveillance Agency, authorized the use of these cells in the experimental treatment of patients with some types of cancer – such as lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system, and B acute lymphocytic leukemia. Now, Anvisa will monitor the tests with 81 patients. The objective of verifying the safety and effectiveness of the new therapy.
The clinical tests, which will be carried out in five hospitals in the state of São Paulo, should last one year. But the first results will be out in the coming months. The researchers are hopeful that, as early as 2024, Anvisa will be able to register this new therapy so that it becomes available to all SUS patients.
The scientific director of the Hemocentro explains that Brazilian technology brings savings for treatment and hope for patients.
“It is a national technology, developed entirely here. When you compare this technology with commercial technology, available in Europe, in the United States, there, the price is R$2 million for a treatment. So, we are making all this effort to deliver this to SUS patients. In other words, making a treatment that saves people’s lives accessible”, explains Dimas Covas, scientific director of Hemocentro Ribeirão Preto.
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