Blood
Blood cancer treatment may cause cancer
Nov
GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) – A life-saving cancer treatment may sometimes cause cancer.
The FDA is investigating right now, saying it received 19 reports of new blood cancers in patients who received the CAR-T cancer treatment.
CAR-T is short of Chimeric Antigen Receptors and the T-cells in your blood.
CAR-T therapy was first approved in 2017 and involves removing a type of white blood cell from a patient’s blood. It’s also used when patients have already had at least one round of conventional treatment with intense chemotherapy and radiation.
The FDA says patients who received this therapy should be monitored for new malignancies for the rest of their lives.
Cancer specialists say CAR-T treatments have saved the lives of thousands of patients with blood cancers and the benefits outweigh the risk.
The FDA says patients and health care providers who have questions can give the agency a call.
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