The first EBMT CAR-T patients have been re-consented for the EBMT CAR-T data collection initiative at the Polish site Supraregional Center of Pediatric Oncology "Cape of Hope''. Read Prof. Dr Krzysztof Kalwak’s testimonial:
“In November 2019 our Transregional Centre for Pediatric Oncology “Cape of Hope” in Wroclaw became the only certified site for CAR T-cell therapy for children with refractory ALL in Poland.
The first patient, an 11-year-old boy, who has suffered from refractory ALL for 7 years, received tisagenlecleucel on the 3rd of March 2020 and became for the first time in his life MRD-negative a few weeks later. He is now more than 14 months off-therapy, in molecular remission and with a measurable amount of CAR T-cells in his peripheral blood. Five more patients have benefited from this revolutionary therapy until now and all of them remain in excellent clinical condition with negative minimal residual disease (MRD), persisting CAR T-cells and with great hopes for a definitive cure. The therapy seems to be safe and the adverse events including severe cytokine release syndrome (CRS) continue to be well manageable.
There is “something magic” in this therapy: we do have a “living drug” with a “licence to kill”. And even though we will not be able to cure all patients, I am sure, we will save a significant proportion of those who remained hopeless after failure of conventional therapy, including HSCT.
A close cooperation with EBMT will further improve the results of the treatment thanks to the global analysis of real-world data, focusing on both efficacy and safety.”
Prof. Dr Krzysztof Kalwak, Wroclaw, Poland (CIC 817)