A woman diagnosed with nerve cancer at age 4 has been reported to have survived for 18 years after receiving 'Chimeric Antigen Receptor T (CAR-T)' cell therapy. This exceeds the previous record of 11 years for the longest survival period among CAR-T therapy patients. The medical community has evaluated this case as evidence that CAR-T cell therapy can also cure solid tumors.
Helen E. Heslop, a professor at Texas Children's Hospital, analyzed the outcomes of 19 child patients who received CAR-T therapy from 2004 to 2009 and announced the findings on the 17th (local time). The results of this study were published that day in the international journal "Nature Medicine."
T cells are a type of immune cell that recognizes and kills cancer or virus-infected cells. CAR-T cell therapy involves extracting a cancer patient's T cells and genetically modifying them outside the body to maximize their ability to recognize and kill specific cancer cells. For instance, the leukemia CAR-T cell therapy approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) targets and attacks a protein (CD19) found on the surface of cancer cells. This therapy has a cure rate of 80-90% for blood cancers, leading to its designation as a 'miracle drug' or 'dream drug' for cancer treatment.
However, CAR-T cells have not been highly effective against solid tumors that form in body tissues, leading to lingering questions about long-term cure possibilities. Recently, a patient with the rare solid tumor of nerve cancer underwent CAR-T cell therapy and has survived for 18 years without cancer recurrence, increasing the likelihood of a cure.
Professor Heslop is regarded as a pioneer who first applied CAR-T cell therapy to cancer treatment. Researchers tracked 19 child patients who previously participated in CAR-T clinical trials. The patients were diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a type of nerve cancer, which is known to typically occur before the age of 5.
Among the 19 clinical trial participants, 12 later experienced a recurrence of neuroblastoma and died within 7 years after treatment. Of the remaining 7 who survived longer, 5 had previously received other treatments and displayed a higher risk of recurrence. In contrast, two other patients had disseminated cancer cells, but they completely disappeared after CAR-T cell treatment.
Notably, one of them remained cancer-free for over 18 years without receiving additional cancer treatments. The patient was diagnosed with cancer at age 4 and received chemotherapy and radiation therapy, but due to ineffectiveness, participated in the CAR-T clinical trial. Considering that the longest survival period for CAR-T therapy patients previously was 11 years, this individual has survived for 1.5 times longer and has been declared cured.
The researchers noted, "The patient who survived for 18 years did not receive any other treatments and has also given birth to two healthy children." They interpreted the detection of CAR-T cells in some patients even 5 years after treatment as an indication that the therapy remained effective by attacking cancer cells upon recurrence.
Of course, most of the patients analyzed this time did not show the effectiveness of CAR-T therapy. The researchers stated, "Finding out why CAR-T cell therapy works for some patients but not others is a priority task," adding that this could lead to improvements in the design of CAR-T cell therapies and enhance their effectiveness against solid tumors.
References
Nature Medicine (2025), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-025-03513-0