T-cell Transfer Therapy – Immunotherapy – National Cancer …

T-cell transfer therapy can cause side effects, which people experience in different ways. The side effects you may have and how serious they are will depend on how healthy you are before treatment, your type of cancer, how advanced it is, the type of T-cell transfer therapy you are receiving, and the dose.

Doctors and nurses cannot know for sure when or if side effects will occur or how they will affect you. So, it is important to know which signs to look for and what to do if you start to have problems.

CAR T-cell therapy can cause a serious side effect known as cytokine release syndrome. This syndrome is caused when the transferred T cells, or other immune cells responding to the new T cells, release a large amount of cytokines into the blood.

Cytokines are immune substances that have many different functions in the body. A sudden increase in their levels can cause:

Most people have a mild form of cytokine release syndrome. But in some people, it may be severe or life-threatening.

Also, although CAR T cells are designed to recognize proteins that are found only on cancer cells, they can also sometimes recognize normal cells. Depending on which normal cells are recognized, this can cause a range of side effects, including organ damage.

TIL therapy can cause capillary leak syndrome. This syndrome causes fluid and proteins to leak out of tiny blood vessels and flow into surrounding tissues, resulting in dangerously low blood pressure. Capillary leak syndrome may lead to multiple organ failure and shock.

For more information about CAR T-cell therapy see CAR T-Cell Therapy: Engineering Patients' Immune Cells to Treat Their Cancers.

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