100 percent leukemia remission in innovative CAR-T therapy Phase-I ICMR trials

The ICMR funded cancer study, published in the prestigious peer-reviewed Molecular Therapy Oncology (May/June, 2025), demonstrates CAR-T therapy, which uses patient’s own T cells to fight cancer, can be safely manufactured and infused at point of care in India at a low cost.

Hyderabad: The innovative but very expensive Car-T therapy to fight cancers could soon become more affordable for poor patients, especially in government hospitals, following successful results from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) funded phase-I trial.

The ICMR funded cancer study, published in the prestigious peer-reviewed Molecular Therapy Oncology (May/June, 2025), demonstrates CAR-T therapy, which uses patient’s own T cells to fight cancer, can be safely manufactured and infused at point of care in India at a low cost.

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The results from the study imply that the CAR-T therapy, currently prohibitively expensive and out of reach for poor patients in government hospitals, can be delivered directly to patients’ bedside in the hospital or clinic. The ICMR study also has the potential to reduce or avoid the time-consuming process involved in logistics, as treatment will be available where the patient is located.

Patients with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, and large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBL), underwent this treatment. The ICMR study showed that CAR-T cell therapy can be safely, effectively and affordably administered at the point of care (bed side) using the patient’s own engineered immune cells to target cancer.

The key results of the phase-I trials include 100 percent remission in leukemia, a 50 percent response in lymphoma, with 80 percent of patients disease-free at 15-months and experiencing mild, manageable side effects without major neurotoxicity.

How was it done?

At present, private hospitals collect a patient’s own T-Cells, which are a type of white blood cells used to fight cancers, and transport them to a laboratory where they are genetically engineered to produce special proteins call as Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CAR) on their surface.

The modified CAR-T cells are multiplied in a laboratory until there are millions of them. Then, they are transported and infused back into the patient’s blood stream.

However, in the ICMR study, the T-cells were modified at the same hospital (CMC Vellore) where the patient was undergoing treatment. ICMR states that fresh, not frozen infusions were administered for better response.

Moreover, at present in private hospitals, it takes at least 3 to 5 weeks to complete the process from T-cell collection to the point where the CAR-T cells are ready for infusion. However, the ICMR-CMC Vellore researchers reduced the turn-around time to 9-days.

“This trial redefines how cancer therapy can be delivered – efficiently, affordably, and close to patients. India is leading the way in developing next-generation, in-house biotherapies with global relevance,” a statement from ICMR said.