Indian CAR-T therapy shows high response rates in blood cancer patients, study finds

A real-world multicentre study of India's first commercially approved CAR-T cell therapy for advanced blood cancers has reported strong early responses in patients. The study, published in Nature's Blood Cancer Journal, covered 250 patients treated at 56 centres with Talicabtagene autoleucel, sold as NexCAR19.

According to the study, 88% of patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia experienced significant shrinking or clearance of their cancer within 28 days of treatment. In both B-cell leukaemia and lymphoma groups, nearly half of patients showed no worsening of their disease even a year later.

NexCAR19 was developed by ImmunoACT, a spin-off from IIT Bombay, in collaboration with Tata Memorial Hospital. The treatment is available at roughly a tenth of the cost of similar Western therapies, according to the developers. The findings confirm that the therapy can be effective for advanced blood cancers and, in some cases, may lead to long-term cancer-free survival, the study's authors said.