In a breakthrough for medical science, a Delhi-based gastroenterologist, Dr (Col) VK Gupta has become the first patient to be cured of cancer using India’s CAR-T cell therapy.

He took this therapy which genetically reprogram a patient’s immune system to fight cancer.

It’s a milestone because the treatment cost Rs. 42 Lakhs in India, as opposed to Rs. 3-4 crore abroad.
People now will be Cancer free with the help of CAR-T cell therapy, which was very recently approved for commercial usage, is a type of immune therapy where the white blood cells that help fight body infection are genetically engineered to attack cancer cells.
The Procedure is- The cells are taken from the patient, modified in a laboratory, and then reinfused in the patient.

https://youtu.be/46H779rncYw?si=jkdARH-atKb8GGA3

In October 2023, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization, India’s drug regulator, approved the commercial use of NexCAR19, the first indigenously developed CAR-T cell therapy. NexCAR19 was developed by ImmunoACT, the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) and Tata Memorial Hospital. CAR-T cell therapy designed to treat B-cell cancers, such as leukemia and lymphoma.

The therapy is now available in over 30 hospitals in more than 10 cities in India for patients aged above 15.
The therapy in India is known to genetically reprogram a patient’s immune system to fight cancer. The patient, Dr (Col) VK Gupta, a Delhi-based gastroenterologist, took this therapy by paying just Rs 42 lakh which would’ve otherwise cost him Rs 4 crore abroad.
History

In 2015, Alka Dwivedi who did her graduation from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay thought of possibility of creation of CAR-T cell therapy within India which should be hundred percent safe and affordable for general public.

At that time, various experiments were done regarding the CAR T-cell therapies—a type of immunotherapy in which a person’s T cells are modified in a laboratory to selectively kill cancer cells—were being tested in clinical trials in the United States. Those therapies were somewhat promising but not hundred percent safe as they could have major side effects.

Dr. Dwivedi and her colleagues thought of designing a different therapy but were doubtful about making it all alone.
Over the next several years, Dr. Dwivedi (who earned her Ph.D. in 2021) embarked on a collaborative journey that brought her and colleagues Rahul Purwar, Ph.D., of IIT Bombay, and Gaurav Narula, M.D., of Tata Memorial Centre in Mumbai, to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

During their time at the NIH Clinical Center, this team shadowed leading experts in CAR T-cell therapy at NCI’s Center for Cancer Research. The training provided by NCI scientists—including Nirali Shah, M.D., who studies CAR T-cell therapies for children with blood cancers—proved invaluable, Dr. Dwivedi said.

The visit helped guide Dr. Dwivedi and her co-investigators in designing an effective CAR-T cell therapy, actalycabtagene autoleucel (NexCAR19), that could be manufactured in India, made available at a reasonable cost, and meet the needs of patients in India’s health care system.

The approval was based on the results of two small clinical trials conducted in IndiaExit Disclaimer in 64 people with advanced lymphoma or leukemia. According to trial results presented in December 2023 at the American Society of Hematology meeting, 67% of patients (36 out of 53) in the two trials had a notable decrease in the extent of their cancer (objective response), with the cancer disappearing altogether in about half (complete response).

ImmunoACT, a spin-off company of IIT Bombay, funded the trial and will be manufacturing actalycabtagene autoleucel and bringing to CAR-T cell therapy market.

“This is a big achievement for India,” said Dr. Dwivedi, who is now continuing her training in NCI’s Center for Cancer Research. “It’s the team effort that brought us here.”