CAR T-Cell Therapy

Leading-Edge CAR T-Cell Immunotherapy for Children and Adults with Cancer

CAR T-Cell Immunotherapy is a new, FDA-approved cancer treatment that uses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer. University Hospitals is proud to be able to offer this leading-edge therapy for patients with certain types of cancer that have been unresponsive to other treatments at the Wesley Center for Immunotherapy at UH Seidman Cancer Center.

Understanding Immunotherapy in Cancer Treatment

Immunotherapy is a cancer treatment that uses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer.

Generating Cellular Therapies On-site at UH Seidman Cancer Center

Immunotherapy is the next frontier in cancer therapy. It uses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer. At University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center, we are able to generate cellular therapies onsite, allowing us to get these cancer treatments to patients more quickly.

CAR T-Cell Therapy: How Does It Work?

CAR T-cell immunotherapy works by taking white blood cells called T-cells from a patient’s blood and modifying them in a lab, essentially reprogramming them to recognize and kill cancer cells. The T-cells are then reintroduced into the patient’s body where they locate, attach to and destroy cancer cells.

CAR T-cell therapy has shown very promising results in treating these types of cancer and is giving new hope to patients in whom other standard leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma treatments – such as radiation, chemotherapy and stem cell transplant – have been unsuccessful.

Wesley Center for Immunotherapy at UH Seidman Cancer Center

The Wesley Center for Immunotherapy at UH Seidman Cancer Center is named in honor of Kimberly and Joseph Wesley. The Wesley family donated $10 million to support groundbreaking research and bring new, life-extending immunotherapy treatments to patients.

This center which generates CAR T, NK cell and other cell based therapies is on-site, which enables patients to have access to the latest therapies more quickly. For example, UH experts are creating cells for treatment in just eight days, down from an average of 12 – 30 days in commercially available CAR T-cell therapy trials. This innovation allows UH Seidman Cancer Center physicians to deliver therapy in a timely manner and to more patients than would otherwise be possible.

University Hospitals is one of less than a dozen academic medical centers to have successfully manufactured CAR T-cells for human use, and is the cornerstone of the nation’s only National Center for Regenerative Medicine.