CAR T-cell treatment costs in Israel
Do CAR T-cell Treatment Costs Have to Be Exorbitant?
On average, cancer treatment in Israel costs 30-80% less than in the US
CAR T-cell therapy is an innovative procedure that makes use of your own immune system to seek and destroy cancerous cells. After some blood is taken from the patient, the T-cells, a type of immune cell, are separated from the rest of the blood in a special laboratory. The T-cells are then genetically engineered to produce chimeric antigen receptors (CARs). The engineered T-cells are then given some time to multiply in the laboratory and are later injected back into the patient. The CARs allow the T-cells to recognize, target, and destroy cancer cells. The whole process takes approximately 10 days, but patients are hospitalized for a minimum of 2 weeks to monitor toxicities. Unfortunately, as a novel advanced treatment, CAR T-cell is only available in a handful of medical institutions worldwide and tends to be very expensive.

Sam Turel’s Story – CAR T-cell Treatment at Sheba Medical Center
According to Sam:
“I was aware of treatment options such as CAR T-cell therapy, and my neurosurgeon brother suggested getting treatment at Sheba Medical Center in Israel. We had explored other international hospitals, such as MD Anderson in Houston, TX, but they only had a program to treat DLBCL with this therapy, or a 2-year clinical trial to treat both DLBCL and CLL. The latter was an experimental program spread out over a long period that required temporary relocation to the United States. Sheba Medical Center had a program to treat both DLBCL and CLL with CAR T-cell therapy.
Because of their on-site lab, the entire treatment would take 8-10 weeks at most. Additionally, the cost of the treatment in Israel was much more affordable than in the US.”
After receiving the therapy at Sheba, Sam’s CLL went into full remission.
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