Rapid Rise to Cancer-Free Outcome

First recipient of rapid novel CAR T-cell therapy delighted by treatment at UH

Carroll “Buddy” Scoville says he’s never lived a normal life before, so he isn’t about to start now. The Mentor man and avid roller skater is making history as the first recipient of rapid CAR T-cell therapy, a novel immunotherapy manufactured in a remarkable 24 hours that has rendered him “cancer free” at this point.

Buddy, who met his wife, Mickey, 53 years go at City Skate Roller Rink in Painesville and is still on the go, enthusiastically chose this cancer treatment option, which gives him the best chance to beat mantel cell lymphoma.

“I was #1,” said Buddy, 75. “It went very well. As of right now, I’m cancer free.”

CAR T-cell therapy is a promising treatment that collects a patient’s own T-lymphocytes, whose normal function is to protect them from infection. In UH Seidman Cancer Center’s Wesley Center for Immunotherapy, they are reprogrammed to recognize and kill cancer cells. The patient’s T-cells are infused back into the bloodstream, and from there they can destroy cancer cells anywhere in the body. UH is among fewer than a dozen academic medical centers nationwide to produce CAR T-cells on site for human use.

CAR T-cell therapy provides a new treatment option for patients who have relapsed following standard treatment for lymphoma, leukemia and myeloma.

Before UH started CAR T-cell development, patients had to wait four weeks or more for commercially produced immunotherapy. Now UH can do the work here even faster, producing CAR T-cells within just 24 hours and infusing them back into the patient about a week later.

“This could be very, very important for a number of patients,” said Koen van Besien, MD, PhD, Director of the Wesley Center for Immunotherapy and Buddy’s doctor. “We can move much faster for these sick patients, from collecting their cells to treating them with their cells.

“And, there’s preliminary laboratory evidence to suggest these rapid CAR T-cells may be more powerful.”

Buddy was first diagnosed and received care for cancer two years earlier at UH Geauga Medical Center following a bout with kidney stones. He’s had 43 kidney stones over the past several decades, so he’s no stranger to pain.

The cancer initially resolved with chemotherapy. When it returned, hematologist and oncologist Osei-Tutu Owusu, MD, the Frederick W. and Jennie Bemberg Master Clinician in Medical Oncology at UH Geauga Medical Center, referred Buddy to Dr. van Besien.

Dr. van Besien, who is also the Don C. Dangler Chair in Stem Cell Research, was able to offer rapid CAR T-cell therapy to Buddy. The CAR T-cells were manufactured in 24 hours and given back to the patient much more quickly than previously – far less time that it takes at many cancer centers across the country that do not have the capability to manufacture them on site.

“Never ever have we been as educated about what was going on as with this CAR T-cell,” said Mickey. Dr. van Besien and his team explained everything they needed to know about the treatment and what to expect. “We feel blessed and lucky.”

Dr. van Besien says patients in remission at the six-month mark usually stay in remission, so he’s hopeful in Buddy’s case.

“He did very well,” Dr. van Besien said. “He’s in ongoing remission.”

Related Links

To learn more about CAR T-cell therapy, click here.