Hope for cancer patients: First patient declared cancer free after using CAR-T cell therapy developed in India [Video]

For those who have a loved one battling cancer, this news spells hope in all caps. Doctors at the Tata Memorial Hospital declared a patient cancer-free, the first one using indigenous CAR-T cell therapy in India. The treatment that would cost anywhere between Rs 3 to 4 crore abroad, cost only Rs 42 lakhs.

Dr (Col) VK Gupta, 64-year-old gastroenterologist, became the first commercial patient to achieve this status, months after India’s drug regulator approved the commercial use of CAR-T cell therapy. Gupta, a Delhi-based gastroenterologist, had probably given up hope after a failed bone marrow transplant in 2022.

What is CAR-T cell therapy all about?

A pioneering treatment, CAR-T cell therapy genetically reprograms a patient’s immune system to fight cancer. Thus, immunotherapy involves genetically engineering a patient’s T-cells, which attack cancer cells. A type of white blood cell, T cells help the body fight infections. They are taken from the patient’s body, modified in the laboratory …