What is cancer?
Cancer is a sickness where cells in the body grow uncontrollably. Our body has many cells that usually grow and divide regularly. But in some people, some cells grow excessively and make lumps called tumours.
Some tumours are not harmful, but others can be very dangerous. They can harm our body and the organs. Cancer is the name given to these dangerous tumours. The disease takes many lives around the world.
There are many treatments that can help remove or reduce cancer, but there is no sure-shot cure still. Recently, an Indian man was declared cancer-free after receiving a new treatment.
What treatment did the man receive?
A few months ago, a new treatment called CAR-T cell therapy was approved in India. This treatment is helping many people, including Dr. (Col) V K Gupta. He was one of the first patients to try it.
Doctors at Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, where Gupta received therapy, say he is now "cancer-free." Dr. Gupta is the first patient to achieve this.
What do we know about the CAR-T cell therapy the patient underwent?
It's a type of treatment where a patient's T cells are changed in a lab to fight cancer cells. The T cells are taken from the patient's blood. They mainly fight B-cell cancers.
The indigenously developed treatment given to Dr. (Col) V K Gupta is called NexCAR19. It's a CAR-T Cell treatment for B-cell cancers like leukaemia. This treatment was made by a company called ImmunoACT, the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB), and the Tata Memorial Hospital.
Where is the treatment currently available?
NexCAR19 is now available in more than thirty hospitals across ten Indian cities. However, a doctor said it's still too early to know how well the treatment works. Some reports say patients with early-stage cancer might have a better chance of surviving.
