Pioneering life saving cancer treatment launched at Sheffield hospital after 'amazing results'

The hospital, on Glossop Road, is introducing a new treatment that uses the patient’s own genetically modified cells to find and kill cancer cells.

The pioneering treatment, known as CAR-T (chimeric antigen receptor t-cell) therapy, will be used in patients with specific types of blood cancers in line with current guidance set out by the National institute for Health and Care Excellence.

Lymphoma and leukaemia

That means it will be offered to patients suffering from certain conditions including some types of lymphoma, and for under 25s, a type of lymphoblastic leukaemia, and where all other treatment options have been unsuccessful.

CAR-T therapy is an innovative new cancer treatment which has shown promising results in patients with specific forms of B-cell leukaemia and lymphoma.

The highly complex treatment – which takes place over several weeks – works by reprogramming a patient’s T-cells (an immune system cell) so they can locate and destroy cancer cells through a receptor system. This ‘receptor system’ enables the reprogrammed cells to latch on to antibodies that would otherwise keep cancer cells invisible from the immune system.

The first step involves drawing a patient’s white blood cells from their blood. These cells are then sent to a secure manufacturing facility where the T- cells are separated from the rest of the other cells taken. The cells are then given new DNA instructions to act as CAR-T cells – cells which do not exist in nature. This information is implanted into the T-cells so they can locate the cancer cells and destroy them.

It can take weeks for the newly re-engineered CAR-T cells to multiply and grow in the laboratory.

Once there are enough CAR-T cells, the cells are frozen and then sent to back to the hospital and put into the patient. Meanwhile, patients are given chemotherapy to increase the chances of the new cells working when given back to the patient. Sheffield is the first designated ‘wave three’ NHS England CAR-T therapy centre, and the 11th in the country to deliver the treatment to adults. It is the first CAR-T therapy centre in South Yorkshire.

‘Amazing results in some patients with blood cancer’

Dr Nick Morley, consultant haematologist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are delighted to have become a national specialist centre for CAR-T therapy centre. CAR-T therapy is an intensive, but exciting and innovative new treatment, which has shown amazing results in some patients with blood cancer. Personalised therapies are increasingly used to treat cancer, and by effectively modifying the patient’s existing immune system CAR-T enables us to deliver a targeted therapy capable of seeking out and destroying cancer cells hiding from the immune system.

“We also have an excellent track record of working with NHS Blood and Transplant to harvest and store stem cells, which T-cells are a sub-set of, and we will be using this extensive experience to lead the way with the development of this new and hugely promising programme of work on behalf of patients in South Yorkshire, Bassetlaw, Chesterfield and beyond.”

The first CAR-T therapy patient at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals received the first course of their treatment early in the new year.

Patients interested in accessing the new treatment should speak to their GP or referring clinician in the first instance.