Jiangsu hospital cures US man’s cancer with experimental cell therapy

A hospital in East China’s Jiangsu Province recently cured a US patient of a form of cancer that starts in the bone marrow, marking the first time a foreign patient has received this particular form of experimental therapy in a Chinese institution.

Californian Craig Chase, 56, came to China on July 19 to receive CAR-T treatment for his myeloma cancer at Nanjing’s Jiangsu Province Hospital and was discharged in late August, according to a Wednesday report from provincial news portal jschina.com.cn.

Myeloma starts in plasma cells in the bone marrow. As the cancer cells crowd the marrow, they can obstruct the production of blood cells including those that carry oxygen around the body and those that fight infections, according to Cancer Research UK.

Chase learned about the clinical trial of the experimental treatment in June and decided to volunteer after receiving conventional treatment for his cancer for three years to no avail, the report read.

The hospital will continue to track his condition even while he is in the US, the report said, explaining that Chase is the sixth patient to be successfully treated with CAR-T therapy in the hospital.

The cutting-edge therapy involves introducing a type of white blood cells known as T-cells into the body. These cells are a normal part of the immune system and attack virus-infected cells and cancer cells. So far only China and the US are conducting CAR-T clinical trials for myeloma cancer, according to the US National Cancer Institute.

Chen Lijuan, one of the doctors that treated Chase, said that accepting the treatment was very brave as CAR-T therapy is still in the clinical stage and is not yet mature.