Did anyone undergo Car-T therapy for B cell lymphoma?

Hello..Hope your husband continues to get better...Can you please tell me which Mayo Clinic location did your husband attend to? I went to Jacksonville once and it did not go so well.

Hi, my name is Kevin. I have Follicular B­-cell non­Hodgkin's lymphoma. I am currently receiving TTI-622 by Trillium Therapeutics, an experimental drug clinical trial. They are trying to extend me into the Allogene Car T Cell trial on August 11, 2019. I am going through the Colorado Blood Cancer Institute in Denver. I have had several treatments since 2015, including R-CHOP and RICE chemotherapy and an autologous stem cell transplant (at CBCI). I relapsed from my stem cell transplant within 10 months. Everything seems so surreal to me. I am scared and feel somewhat lonely. It helps reading about other people's journey on this site. This is the first time I have accessed information in this manner. Kevin

Hi Kevin, my name is Cindy & on 2/2/22 I was just diagnosed with non Hodgkin Lymphoma, I had no idea a skin sore could be a blood disease. How long have you been Know of your lymphoma.?

Hello. I had CAR-T in February this year (2022) and I had cytokine release toxicity as well as neurotoxicity. I was very sick for quite some time & I still suffer bone pain, fatigue & muscle weakness…
My cancer was DLBCL & I am in remission now. I had undergone 16 months of chemo/radiation/methotrexate/more high dose chemotherapy and I never had any luck at all. Therefore I was eligible for CAR-T (yescarta)

Hello. I had CAR-T in February this year (2022) and I had cytokine release toxicity as well as neurotoxicity. I was very sick for quite some time & I still suffer bone pain, fatigue & muscle weakness…
My cancer was DLBCL & I am in remission now. I had undergone 16 months of chemo/radiation/methotrexate/more high dose chemotherapy and I never had any luck at all. Therefore I was eligible for CAR-T (yescarta)

Hello Judy,
I am so glad the hear that you had the opportunity to be treated with Yescarta. I like you had Yescarta treatment, I was infused in August of 2018 for large B Cell Lymphoma that would not react to any of the more common treatments. It sounds like our post treatment symptoms may be somewhat similar. My toxicity levels were very high as well, I spent 1 week in the ICU and another in the hospital recovering. Fatigue, muscle weakness, skin irritation lasted well over a year. (I was 62 years old at the time which could reflect on the length of recuperation.) I struggled with my appetite for quite some time. I found that eating a high protein diet helped.
How is your appetite?
Take care in your recovery.
Bob

Hello Bob - my appetite was only bad while I was in hospital - I lost 10 kgs in 4 weeks. I was also put on a high protein, high energy diet & I still use Sustagen as a meal replacement from time to time.
I was prepped for icu but pulled through at the last minute. I’d spent my first months of treatment in Darwin (1000 kilometres) at the top end of the Northern Territory and then because nothing worked on my NHL - DLBCL I was referred to Melbourne and the Peter MacCallum cancer centre in January this year.
I live in Alice Springs, Central Australia so a long way to travel both times. I hadn’t lived in my home for nearly two years 😢

CAR-T Immunotherapy is the newest treatment for some leukemias and for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. A good overview can be found on the National Cancer Institute website:
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/research/car-t-cells
and on the Mayo Clinic page for CAR-T
https://www.mayoclinic.org/departments-centers/car-t-cell-therapy-program/home/orc-20404317
Copy and paste each in your browser to find out more.

My husband had this procedure in May-June 2018. It's very rough, but it worked for him. CAR-T is, as I understand, is not a first option treatment. Before his CAR-T, my husband had exhausted every other treatment option, including R-CHOP chemotherapy (in our city) and an autologous stem cell transplant (at Mayo). But his cancer, T-Cell Rich B-Cell non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, returned, and he was considered terminal in March 2017. But CAR-T passed clinical trials and was approved as a treatment by the FDA that autumn. After CAR-T, however, he is now in remission. Not all patients are eligible for CAR-T. Luckily, my husband's cancer advanced very slowly, and he was still asymptomatic and feeling find, with no other underlying health issues (diabetes, heart disease, etc.) when we went to Mayo's for the pre-tests. A patient must undergo a battery of pre-tests to ensure he or she can withstand the serious, but temporary, neurological and other side effects and the stress the treatment inflicts on the heart, kidneys, liver, etc. My husband had these serious side effects, but none was permanent. CAR-T treatment lasts about eight weeks, including, most often, one to two weeks of in-patient hospitalization when the side effects happen (usually very shortly after the T-cells are reinfused). If the patient is not hospitalized, he or she must go to outpatient clinic every day to be monitored over the course of the treatment. To undergo the CAR-T treatment, a patient must bring along a caregiver who is willing to assist in every way possible and observe the patent--24 hours a day. (Believe me, this was needed!) When the patient returns home, there is usually a week or two of recuperation before the patient feels like returning to work for a sendentary job (like my husband's). This recuperation would be longer if your had a job that required more physical or strenuous work. Also, the patient must return to Mayo's every three months or so for follow-up PETs and blood tests for a year and more. My husband was treated at Mayo's. I can't recommend Mayo's enough. The CAR-T team--everyone from doctors, physician assistants, nurses, physical and occupational therapists, well--everybody!!--was stellar. We will never forget the wonderful people we met. They are the very best!