Firsthand Experience With CAR T-Cell Therapy

With the approval of the first chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in 2017, the stars aligned just in time for one woman diagnosed with a rare lymphoma.

Following what was a stubborn cough and many misdiagnoses, Caitlin Buchanan was told she had primary mediastinal diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. After chemotherapy failed to work, she was given a second chance with CAR T-cell therapy — which is when immune cells are taken from a patient, re-engineered so that they seek out and destroy cancer, and are then re-introduced into the patient to treat their cancer.

In this week’s episode of “CURE® Talks Cancer,” Caitlin — who is now cancer-free – talked about her diagnosis, the shock of being told she had cancer and how CAR T-cell therapy changed her life.