CAR T-cell therapy is a type of treatment option for blood cancers like lymphoma and leukemia. The immunotherapy involves using a patient’s cells to find and fight cancer. However, it is now being tested in other non-cancerous conditions.
What is systemic sclerosis?
Emina Ballew was referred to see a rheumatologist after she noticed swelling in her hands and feet.
After some tests, she found out she had systemic sclerosis, also known as scleroderma.
“My first symptoms were swelling and tightness in my skin so it’s a tightness which starts affecting your joints," said Ballew.
There is no cure for this autoimmune disease but can be managed to help alleviate symptoms.
“The treatment is something typically that slows down the immune system, so we start with common medicines that we borrow from other conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, and this is based on our guidelines for the best practices that we have,” said Avera rheumatologist, Mark Vercel, DO.
Clinical trial opportunity
Unfortunately, her symptoms progressed, but she had an opportunity to enroll in a clinical trial for systemic sclerosis.
“I was getting worse, my lungs were getting impacted, I was getting to the point where I really couldn’t do much, I lost a lot of weight, I was tired all the time, no energy, I would walk up the stairs and have to sit down and rest,” said Ballew.
The clinical trial uses CAR T-cell therapy, which is typically not used for conditions like Emina’s.
“Currently CAR T-cell therapy is only available for certain hematology malignancies, we have had a handful of different clinical trials that are looking at CAR T-cell therapy for different diseases, we have had lung, endometrial, but this is the first trial we have had for a non-cancerous diagnosis,” said research coordinator at Avera, Lauren Donelan.
“What we do is we take the persons T cells from their body and then we ship them off to a lab and then they get what I call training on how to fight the cancer or disease,” said Avera hematologist, Xavier Andrade-Gonzalez, MD. “Once they get their training then we get them back and infuse them.”
Emina was one of only a handful of patients in the country to have this therapy and has responded well.
Successful outcome for patients
“That’s what we are seeing across all the reports from various studies is that patients are often having a dramatic response to treatment. The goal is now for most of these patients is remission without any medication, we don’t know how long that remission will last, but it’s incredibly encouraging and different than anything we’ve seen in this disease so far,” said Dr. Vercel.
A multidisciplinary collaborative effort helped make it possible to bring this clinical trial to Avera as well as ensure a positive patient experience.
“Usually studies of this sort are only held at large academic centers so it’s a huge win for Avera to be able to have this available. Our patients deserve the best care, the best options, and they deserve to have it close to home,” said Donelan.
A win that has allowed Emina to get back to living her life.
“Now I go for walks, I will walk a few miles every night with my daughter, because I really couldn’t do anything with my kids, now I can go up and down the stairs, I can pretty much do everything I could before all this happened,” said Ballew.
Emina will be followed through the clinical trial for five years. Learn more about clinical trials available at Avera.
