Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) has been a leader in immunotherapy since it was first introduced as a form of treatment for certain cancers decades ago. Today, we’ve been selected as the only certified treatment center in the Northwest to offer axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel, also known by the brand name YESCARTA™), a new immunotherapy that uses engineered cell therapy to harnesses the power of a patient’s own immune system to treat adults with aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).
Axi-cel, which was shown to be very effective during trials run by Kite, uses a patient’s own immune system to target cancer. “About 60 percent of all NHL cases are classified as aggressive, meaning they are fast growing and often difficult to treat,” said Dr. Nancy Davidson, executive director and president of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. “Axi-cel will provide us with a whole new treatment for NHL that we believe holds tremendous promise.”
SCCA’s leadership in immunotherapy has helped to boost survival rates for patients with leukemia, lymphoma and numerous other cancers and access to axi-cel represents a major step forward in the evolution of cancer care.
“The FDA’s first approval of a CAR T-cell therapy was for pediatric patients and young adults with a different type of blood cancer, and while it is a major advance it impacted a relatively small number of patients,” said Dr. David Maloney, medical director of the Bezos Family Immunotherapy Clinic at SCCA and medical director of cellular immunotherapy at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, an alliance partner of SCCA. “The addition of axi-cel as a therapy available at SCCA means that more patients will be able to seek the most effective treatment for their specific needs. It also demonstrates SCCA’s leadership in the fight against cancer, and we’re proud to be able to offer this promising new cancer treatment to our patients today.”
