CAR-T Cell Therapy in Israel

To administer CAR-T therapy, a doctor extracts blood from the patient, which is then sent to a specialized laboratory where the T-cells are separated from the rest of the blood. The next step is to genetically engineer these T-cells, which are a type of immune cell so that they produce chimeric antigen receptors (CARs). After the modified T-cells take time to multiply in a laboratory setting, a doctor injects them back into the patient. Now they function differently – due to the CARs, these engineered T-cells can recognize tumor cells and destroy them.

While the T-cells are reproducing, the patient receives chemotherapy that suppresses their immune system. In effect, this helps theSave CAR-T cells work more efficiently once they are injected into the patient. Altogether, this revolutionary treatment for leukemia takes approximately 10 days, and patients are typically hospitalized for at least two weeks for monitoring. Learn more about the processes of CAR T-Cell.

Mylène, a Swiss 15-year old, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in January 2016. She underwent five months of intensive chemotherapy at Lucerne State Hospital, in Switzerland – only to relapse in July of that same year. Unfortunately, Mylène had an extremely resistant type of leukemia that does not generally have a good prognosis. Further treatments of high-dose chemotherapy and biopharmaceutical drugs were not able to bring her into full remission. When Mylène suffered her fourth relapse, her leukemia was extramedullary (clusters of abnormal cells were discovered outside her bone marrow), which was a worst-case scenario.

At this point, the only remaining treatment for Mylène was breakthrough CAR-T Cell therapy. This new treatment was available in the United States, yet for the steep price of approximately a half a million dollars. However, it was also available in Israel at a much more affordable cost. So Mylène’s Swiss physician reached out to his colleagues in Israel, Dr. Elad Jacoby and Prof. Shai Izraeli, at Sheba Medical Center.

Mylène and her parents arrived at Sheba in May, 2017. She arrived in excruciating pain and went straight to the emergency room at the Safra Children’s Hospital at Sheba. Once the doctors managed to help abate her pain, Mylène then had to wait for her T-cell levels to rise sufficiently to begin CAR-T therapy. About one month later, the doctors extracted her T-cells and engineered them to target her leukemia. After 35 million modified T-cells were injected into her body, it took seven weeks of specialized care at Sheba until Mylène finally overcame her challenging course of progressive resistant leukemia.

Mylène returned to Switzerland at the end of July, and further testing at the University Children’s Hospital Zurich verified the success of the life-saving CAR-T treatment.

Mylène’s family shares,

“Without Dr. Elad Jacoby, our medical coordinator, and the volunteer medical staff at Sheba, we never would have survived this turning point in our life… Both medical competency and compassion abound at Sheba. ”

The very first child with leukemia to receive CAR-T treatment in Israel achieved total remission. Since 2016, the Pediatric Hemato-Oncology Department at Sheba Medical Center has provided CAR-T cell therapy for 17 cases, and 75% of these showed complete remission.

• In young children: 85-90%
• Teenagers: About 80%
• Entire patient population: Approximately 70%