CAR T-cell therapy to be funded for three lymphomas
Australia to be one of the few countries to manufacture the treatment
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for certain relapsed and refractory patients with three types of lymphoma will be publicly funded, Minister for Health Greg Hunt has announced.
Eligible patients will be certain adults with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma or the rarer conditions of transformed follicular lymphoma and primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma.
For those with refractory or relapsed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, the median life-expectancy is six months, according to Novartis, the sponsor of the therapy.
Some 200-250 patients per year are expected to benefit from the free treatment, which would otherwise cost $500,000 per person per year, Mr Hunt says.
