Strict Guidelines Ensure the Safety of This Treatment
- More than 100 medical centers across the U.S. offer CAR T-cell therapy, a personalized treatment for multiple myeloma and other blood cancers.
- These centers have to follow strict standards and guidelines.
- Centers that perform CAR T-cell therapy are accredited through a rigorous process, and they have to undergo regular inspections.
The number of centers that provide CAR T-cell therapy has been steadily growing. Today, more than 100 medical centers throughout the country offer this treatment. Yet the distribution isn’t even. Some states have several cancer centers offering CAR T-cell therapy, while others have just one.
Read MoreCAR T-Cell Therapy is Carefully Regulated
Anyone who is worried about trying a cancer treatment that is still somewhat new can take comfort in the fact that centers offering CAR T-cell therapy have to follow strict standards and guidelines. “CAR T-cell therapeutics are regulated closely by a variety of regulatory boards in the U.S.,” says Dr. Martin.
Centers follow standards set by an organization called FACT, which is short for the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy. This nonprofit organization was founded in 1996 by the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) and the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT). FACT sets standards and guidelines for the safe manufacture and administration of cell-based treatments.
Centers that perform CAR T-cell therapy are accredited through a rigorous process, and they have to undergo inspections to make sure they have the experience to care for people who are undergoing these treatments. Accredited centers are required to treat a certain number of people each year, and to follow policies to ensure that the treatments they are providing are safe.
“There are many parts of this process that are really important, including that you educate all the people within your hospital,” according to Dr. Martin. “You educate the ER doctors, you educate the ICU doctors, and you educate the neurologists.” The medical directors and other personnel at these hospitals must meet certain educational requirements, and have a specific amount of training and experience.
An “Exciting” Treatment
CAR T-cell therapy has shown a lot of promise, especially for people with multiple myeloma who haven’t had great success with other treatments. “The data is obviously very exciting, and we all want to move forward with CAR T-cell therapy,” Dr. Martin says. “We think it’s going to be part of the future.”
If you are interested in trying this treatment and your cancer center doesn’t offer it, you can always get a referral to one that does, Dr. Martin says.
One positive aspect to the COVID-19 pandemic is that doctors are doing a lot of their initial evaluations via telehealth, letting patients have their visits virtually over a computer or other device. So even if you live several hours away from the nearest cancer center that offers CAR T-cell therapy, you can meet with one of their doctors via Zoom or another video conferencing service.
“We can ask you some questions to see how fit you are. And you can ask us some questions to see if you might potentially be a candidate, and we can go from there,” Dr. Martin says.
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