Using immunotherapy to treat patient with lymphoma, is this real?!

There is no doubt that lymphomas are one of the most aggressive cancers we have ever seen. Did scientists finally find treatment for it? Before anything we need to decide which type of lymphoma you are talking about.
There are 2 main categories of lymphomas: Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin.

 Hodgkin lymphoma:
Usually, the Hodgkin lymphoma is the good one. It is not as aggressive as non-Hodgkins. Also, its spread is usually predicted. It spreads from one lymph node (usually cervical lymph nodes) to the next in the lymph vessels. It doesn’t spread in the blood, so it doesn’t produce masses in other organs such as the liver, brain, and bones. So, it is treated with radiation and it responds well. It has a good prognosis in general.
اللمفومة اللاهودجكينية Non-Hodgkin lymphoma - أنا أصدق العلم

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma:
They are the bad ones. They start extranodal, but they can also begin in the lymph nodes. They have a bad prognosis. Their spread is not predicted. They reach the blood and can invade other organs including the bone marrow. So, we can say that their prognosis is bad. In some of these cases, CAR-T therapy is reserved for those whose lymphomas are not responding to treatment. Usually, the type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma with the worst prognosis is called diffuse b cell lymphoma

So, what is CAR-T therapy
The theory is simple to understand if you have any background in medicine but the application is far more complex. You should know that normally our immune system has the ability to destroy cancer cells. However, cancer also has the ability to evade our immune system. So, we try to solve this problem by making the immune system more effective in the process of detecting cancer cells.
CAR-T therapy involves taking a blood sample from the patient, then we isolate the t cells for his blood. We then introduce a virus to these cells to infect them. Then, these cells will begin to express a specific protein on its surface. This protein makes the immune system has the ability to recognize these cancer cells. So, the t cells are infused to the patient, travel to the lymphatic organs (where lymphoma exits) and start an immune response against these cancer cells. That’s it!


You can watch this video for more info!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZpHu0gl6LU

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