Car T Cell Therapy Side Effects

Cytokines are immune substances that have many different functions in the body.

Car t cell therapy side effects.

Neurologic events include encephalopathy. Despite the therapeutic successes of car t cell therapy the intervention carries the risk of severe side effects. Cytokine release syndrome which is similar to flu like symptoms headache. Some people have had serious side effects from this treatment especially as the car t cells multiply in the body to fight the cancer.

Serious side effects of this release can include very high fevers and dangerously low blood pressure in the days after treatment is given. These include neurotoxicity which can result in headache confusion and. The 133 participants in the fred hutch clinical trial believed to be the largest sample size in any published study of car t cell therapy side effects had advanced leukemias or lymphomas that had proven resistant to standard therapies. Because it s affecting your immune system car t can cause other changes in your body too.

As car t cells multiply they cause massive amounts of chemicals called cytokines to be released into the blood. This happens when car t cells begin attacking cancer and trigger an. Cytokine release syndrome crs you may have heard of the cytokine storm in 2018 when many people got seriously ill during flu season. This syndrome is caused when the transferred t cells or other immune cells responding to the new t cells release a large amount of cytokines into the blood.

Car t cell therapy can trigger a range of side effects many of which begin subtly but can rapidly worsen. Again tumor lysis is a side effect showing that the car t cell treatment is working perhaps too well. While the therapy can lead to long lasting remissions for some patients with very advanced cancer it can also cause neurologic side effects such as speech problems tremors delirium and seizures. Car t cell therapy side effects.

When the modified t cells kill the tumor cells these then break into component parts and all the leftover gunk can be floating in your bloodstream. The possible side effects that your doctor will discuss with you include. Car t cell therapy can cause a serious side effect known as cytokine release syndrome. Cytokine release syndrome crs.

Some side effects can be severe or fatal. The most common side effects seen are.