Cutting-Edge Cancer Treatment Isn't Known By Most Americans

Key TakeawaysNearly two-thirds of Americans have never heard of a highly effective cancer treatmentCAR T-cell therapy teaches a person’s immune system how to find and attack their specific cancerBut 65% of people haven’t heard of the treatment, which for now is approved only in blood cancers.MONDAY, April 21, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- Chris Vogelsang has had a long and terrible fight with cancer.Fourteen years ago, the 70-year-old man was first diagnosed with an aggressive form of lymphoma.His cancer has since returned twice, fighting against several rounds of different treatments that included a full-blown stem cell transplant.“My energy level was terrible. I was losing weight and had night sweats,” Vogelsang said in a news release. “It turned out that I was 90% involved with lymphoma cells in my bone marrow, which is pretty significant. I asked, ‘What do I have to do to get through it so I can get on with my life?’”The answer turned out to be a cutting-edge treatment that few Americans know about, according to Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, N.Y., the hospital that treated Vogelsang.CAR T-cell therapy uses advanced gene therapy to teach a person’s immune system how to target and destroy their cancer.Unfortunately, nearly two-thirds of Americans (65%) are unaware of this personalized cancer treatment option, a new survey by Roswell Park found.In CAR T-cell therapy, doctors extract hunter/killer immune cells called T-cells from a person’s own blood.Lab technicians analyze a person’s cancer and find targets on the cancer cells that could be used to find and kill them.The techs then genetically engineer the T-cells so that they will seek out these specific targets and attack the person’s cancer. The immune cells are then put back into a person’s body via IV.“CAR T-cell therapy is a massive paradigm change of how we view and think of cancers and how we treat those cancers,” Dr. Renier Brentjens, deputy director and chair of medicine at Roswell Park, said in a news release.The results of CAR T-cell therapy have so far been highly promising, with more than half of lymphoma patients achieving remission, doctors at Roswell Park say. In certain types of leukemia, the remission rate from the therapy is as high as 90%.“When I see patients in the clinic, I ask myself, ‘What do I have available that can cure them of their disease?’” said Dr. Marco Davila, senior vice president and associate director for translational research at Roswell Park.“These patients have typically gone through a lot, and the upside of CAR T-cell therapy is that they can potentially get cured and go back to their lives as a father, a mother, a student — and that, to me, is just amazing,” he said.Vogelsang’s care team raised the possibility of CAR T-cell therapy as an option in 2022.Vogelsang underwent the treatment, and his scans have shown no signs of cancer in his system since March 2023.He has been able to return to the tennis courts and to spend more time with his wife Karen and their growing family, which will soon include 10 grandchildren.“I feel great, and I'm back to the life that I knew before,” Vogelsang sasid. “To have doctors and scientists who can develop therapies is beyond words. There are people who will walk into Roswell Park today and get a diagnosis. If they know CAR T-cell therapy is available for their cancer and they know that the results have been great, it offers them hope, along with their families and friends.”For now, CAR T-cell therapy is only approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for certain types of blood cancer.However, doctors are working on ways to extend this personalized therapy so it can be used to treat solid tumors as well, experts said.For the survey, Roswell Park polled 1,021 adults 18 and older between March 14 and 16. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.More informationThe American Cancer Society has more on CAR T-cell therapy.SOURCE: Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, news release, April 17, 2025 .What This Means For YouPeople with blood cancers should ask their doctor whether CAR T-cell therapy would be right for them..Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter