6. CAR-T cell therapy: the story of 2 brave young women fighting cancer

This episode is a more immediately serious story than previous topics we've covered.  This story is about a discovery where a number of people had to go through unimaginable pain so that it can become useful for others. 

This is the story of Emily Whitehead, the first pediatric patient enrolled in a clinical trial investigating CAR T-cell therapy CTL019, now known as tisagenlecleucel, at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Emily is now a happy, healthy 14-year-old in remission for the past 7 years. 

This is also the story of Nicole Gularte, the leukemia patient who beat cancer 8 times (!!!) and is the recipient of no less than 3 rounds of CAR-T cell therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). On Nov 23rd she will walk 8 km ahead of Philadelphia Marathon to raise money and awareness for the Emily Whitehead Foundation. You can help by donating here: www.bit.ly/nicolecart 

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Keywords: cell, patient, therapy, doctor, story, discovery, gene therapy, cancer, treatment, manufacturing, industry, trial, therapeutic index, clinical trial