<h5>What is cancer?</h5><p>Cancer is an illness that causes someone's cells to grow out of control. The human body consists of billions of cells. Most of these cells repeatedly reproduce. However, in certain people, some cells multiply excessively and cause tumours.</p><p>While some tumours are harmless, some are extremely harmful. They can destroy healthy cells and organs nearby. Cancer is the name given to these dangerous tumours. Sometimes, the cells from these tumours move to other parts of the body and form new tumours. Cancer kills a lot of people around the world.</p><p>There are treatments that help get rid of or reduce cancer in a person’s body, but there is no sure-shot cure still. Recently, an Indian man was declared cancer-free after receiving a new treatment.</p><figure class="image"><img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/newsahoot.appspot.com/o/new-therapy-cures-cancer-in-an-indian-man%2FCancer%20cells.jpg?alt=media&amp;token=419ec163-fd4c-44ff-9c23-03939fdd04f0"><figcaption>Reproduction of cancer cells to form a tumour. Photo by Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0</figcaption></figure><h5>What treatment did the man receive?</h5><p>A few months ago, India's drug regulatory organisation approved the commercial use of CAR-T cell therapy. Now, the therapy is helping many, including Dr (Col) V K Gupta, a cancer patient. He was one of the first patients to receive the new treatment.</p><p>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.</p><h5>What do we know about the CAR-T cell therapy the patient underwent?</h5><p>It is a type of treatment in which a cancer patient’s T cells are modified in the laboratory to attack cancer cells. The T cells are obtained from a patient's blood.</p><p>More such modified cells are grown in the lab before being inserted back into the patient's body. Once within the body, these modified cells detect and destroy cancer cells, focusing on B-cell cancers.</p><p>The indigenously developed treatment received by Dr (Col) V K Gupta is named NexCAR19. It is a CAR-T Cell treatment for B-cell cancers, such as leukaemia. This treatment has been developed by a company named ImmunoACT, the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB), and the Tata Memorial Hospital.</p><p>This treatment generally costs Rs 3-4 crores outside India. However, the indigenous treatment received by the patient costs around Rs 40 lakh.</p><h5>Where is the treatment currently available?</h5><p>NexCAR19 is currently available in more than thirty hospitals across ten Indian cities. Patients over the age of 15 years suffering from B-cell cancers can receive this treatment.</p><p>However, a doctor said it's too early to predict the therapy's success rate. He said the initial reports show patients in the early stages of cancer have a better chance of surviving.</p>

The name of the CAR-T cell therapy is NexCAR19.

New Therapy Cures Cancer in an Indian Man

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