What is CAR-T therapy?

CAR-T therapy works by taking some T cells (blood cells that help to protect you from infection and disease) out of your blood, genetically modifying them in a lab so they are much better at finding and killing cancer cells, and then putting them back into your blood to fight the cancer. 

There are several stages in the process of having CAR-T therapy, which takes several weeks:

• T cells are taken from your blood, using a tube inserted into a vein in your arm. This takes two to three hours.
• T cells are taken to a laboratory and genetically modified, turning them into CAR-T cells. This takes two to three weeks.
• CAR-T cells are put back into your bloodstream, through a drip. This takes a few hours.
• CAR-T cells attack and kill cancer cells in the body. You will be closely monitored after having CAR-T therapy. 

Updated 11 April 2024

CAR-T therapy is still limited to a small number of people. Growing numbers of people with blood cancer are able to access it however.

There are currently three types of CAR-T therapy being used in the UK, made by two different companies. They are called Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel), Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel) and Tecartus (brexucabtagene autoleucel).

In England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, CAR-T therapy can be given to:

• Adults with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) or primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL), whose lymphoma has continued to grow after at least two treatments.
• Adults with mantle cell lymphoma, whose lymphoma has continued to grow after two prior treatments including a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor such as ibrutinib.
• Children and adults up to age 25 with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), where treatment has not worked, or the ALL has come back after treatment.
• Adults aged 26 and over B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), where treatment has not worked, or the ALL has come back after treatment.

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, CAR-T therapy can also be given to:

• Adults with diffuse large B‑cell lymphoma (DLBCL) that returns within a year of a first treatment with chemoimmunotherapy, or is resistant to a first treatment with chemoimmunotherapy

In many cases, CAR-T therapy needs to be given through the Cancer Drugs Fund or another patient access scheme.

Unfortunately not. Right now, CAR-T therapy is only a treatment option for certain blood cancers that haven’t responded to other standard treatments. There is also a high risk of side effects, so the person must have a certain level of fitness at the time of treatment.

Users are discussing their CAR-T therapy experiences and sharing information on our community forum.

If you think you may be eligible for CAR-T therapy and want to find out more, speak to your healthcare team.

If you are eligible, your doctor will refer you to both a local and a national CAR-T panel. The panel prioritises people eligible for CAR-T based on their fitness and severity of the cancer. 

The CAR-T treatments approved for use in the UK have been through rigorous trials to make sure they’re as safe as possible for eligible patients. However, CAR-T therapy is still a new treatment and we’re learning with each clinical trial how to make it more effective. 

As with all cancer treatments, there are benefits and risks. As CAR-T is a new treatment, we don’t yet know if there are any longer-term risks. 

CAR-T therapy is still new and can cause some serious side effects. This is why the treatment is only done in specialist hospitals that have an expert team to manage these if they do occur.

One of the more common side effects of CAR-T therapy (can occur in more than 1 in 10 people) is cytokine release syndrome (CRS). CRS is triggered when CAR-T cells release a substance called cytokine. This results in a type of immune reaction in the body similar to a severe infection and causes flu-like symptoms. It can usually be treated within a few days. 

Sometimes, CRS can become severe and dangerous, causing symptoms such as a high fever, fast heart rate, low blood pressure or difficulty breathing. 

CAR-T therapy can also cause problems such as altered or decreased consciousness, delirium, confusion, agitation, seizures, difficulty speaking or understanding and loss of balance. Usually these symptoms get better on their own or respond to steroids.

The CAR-T treatments being used in the UK have been shown to be better at getting people into remission than existing treatments. However, the evidence is still limited to the trials that have been done with specific groups of patients. We don’t know how well CAR-T works in large numbers of people, and we don’t know how well it works in many types and stages of blood cancer.  

Because CAR-T is a new treatment, we also don’t know what the longer-term impact is, in terms of response, survival and side effects.   

In addition to the CAR-T treatments explained here, which are now being used on the NHS, there are multiple other CAR-T treatments still being researched in clinical trials. They are looking at how to use CAR-T therapy to treat leukaemias, lymphomas and myeloma.  

To search for clinical trials, visit www.bepartofresearch.nihr.ac.uk and search “CAR T” 

If you want to know more about clinical trials you may be eligible for, speak to your healthcare team. 

We’ll keep this web page up-to-date with the latest information on CAR-T, and we’ll keep you informed about any changes or breakthroughs through our news and social media.

We’re funding clinical trials into CAR-T so we can develop the treatment and make it available to more people. 

We supported the appraisal process for the new CAR-T treatments, helping to get them approved for use on the NHS for people with blood cancer.  

Now that some CAR-T therapies are being rolled out, we’re monitoring uptake closely, speaking to people who’ve had the treatment and the clinicians involved in their care. We want to understand how effectively it’s working and whether there are things that need to change to improve peoples’ experiences in future. 

Read more about our research impact.

Thank you to Professor Karl Peggs for working with us to produce the written content on this page.

Professor Peggs is Scientific Director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Blood and Transplant Research Unit in Stem Cells and Immunotherapies, and Medical and Scientific Director of the Sir Naim Dangoor Centre for Cellular Immunotherapy at UCLH.

Throughout 2024, Blood Cancer UK is reviewing its CAR-T information and expanding the resources available for healthcare professionals and the blood cancer community. This work is being funded by Autolus Therapeutics Ltd and Beefy's Charity Foundation. These organisations provided funding but had no further input.'