On Cancer Therapy: Experts, Advocates, and Policymakers Agree on CAR-T

As America finds itself in the midst of the devastating COVID-19 health crisis, we are reminded of the importance of right data and trusted voices. And just as the whole of America’s medical and scientific communities are accelerating the efforts to find therapies and a vaccine for the Coronavirus, we must persist in “staying atop of the world in medical innovation” in finding treatments and a cure to defeat cancer.  

The editors at RealClearHealth (RCH) have affirmed that “Medical progress must be centered on a ‘right therapy at the right time for the right patient at the right price’ ethos. Personalized medicine is the future of medical progress, and as the American biopharmaceutical sector works to find a cure for cancer, exciting breakthroughs are happening every day.”  RCH has highlighted an immunotherapy treatment called chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (CAR-T) which is available now. What’s more, the patient advocacy and public health policy communities have rallied around CAR-T as a Twenty-First Century medical innovation that must be made accessible to patients who need it.

RCH has reported on the myriad experts and activists—ranging from think tanks to physicians and patient advocates—who have lauded CAR-T therapy: 

• SBEC President & CEO, Karen Kerrigan—a 10-year cancer survivor—wrote for the Morning Consult that “CAR-T cancer therapies are widely considered a next-wave cancer treatment that will bring hope for a cure …. More and more doctors around the country are performing CAR-T, which has produced largely positive outcomes for patients.”
• Richard Maziarz, with the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, explains: it’s one type of white blood cell, the B-cell, that gets sick. “And the way I often describe this to patients is: The B-cells are like artillery, well behind the enemy lines, and you’re firing off shells at a distance, to kill at a distance.”
• Stephanie Carlson, the executive director of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in Oregon, said that with CAR-T innovation, we’re literally talking “Star Wars-type science … What we are doing is we unlock the body’s own immune system and use it to fight cancer cells.”

The therapy lacks several of the harshest side effects of traditional cancer treatments like chemotherapy (which poisons the cancer), radiation (which burns it), or surgery (which physically cuts it out). Stephanie Carlson explains, “with CAR-T, instead of using those harsh chemicals, where we’re literally killing everything. The immune system is able to identify the bad cells, the cancerous cells and it’s able to attack those cells only.”

Earlier this month, a coalition of these trusted voices signed on to a letter urging Seema Verma, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), to ensure patient access to CAR-T cell therapies and “establish adequate, permanent Medicare reimbursement.” These patient advocates understand the data and, therefore, are urging the Trump administration to make CAR-T widely available to Medicare beneficiaries.

An available therapy is only effective in saving lives if it is also accessible. The Trump administration is faced with a decision to offer Medicare beneficiaries access to this innovative cancer therapy.

The coalition letter follows a February letter sent to CMS from over 70 Members of Congress—Democrats, Republicans, liberals, and conservatives—encouraging Administrator Verma to guarantee that Medicare patients nationwide have access to this life-saving treatment. The Congressional letter goes on to ask the administration to “ensure that hospitals are appropriately reimbursed so they may continue to provide” CAR-T therapy to America’s seniors.

The experts, advocates, and policymakers all agree—and the data confirms—CAR-T is a life-saving treatment that must be made available to all those who need it. Moreover, the data shows health care system costs decrease when CAR-T therapy is used earlier in treatment, and certain patients experience dramatic increases of life expectancy with CAR-T therapy.

During our current health crisis combating COVID-19, President Trump has made plain that his administration’s highest priority is the health and safety of the American people. The Trump administration needs to build on its record of supporting both CAR-T innovation and seniors’ access to cancer care. To do this, CMS must guarantee that providers are properly reimbursed for treating CAR-T patient Medicare beneficiaries.

Jerry Rogers is the editor at RCH and the host of “The Jerry Rogers Show” on WBAL NewsRadio.