You can also add to your health journal encourading news about advances in the lymphoma management. Here are some of them:
New CAR T therapy can destroy lymphoma without side effects
CAR-T cell therapy involves modifying immune T cells in vitro to precisely target CD19 antigens on B cells, which are present in tumors. However, a problem with this technology is that CAR-T cells destroy all cells with this antigen, including healthy ones, which leads to suppression of the immune system. A group of doctors led by Andrea Henden from the QIMR Berghofer Institute of Medicine in Brisbane (Australia) in 2026 developed a CAR-T cell therapy called CART4-34, which targets a different antigen, IGHV4-34 (which is involved in immune responses when interacting with cancer cells). The experimental treatment was performed on mice. The authors' hypothesis was confirmed: the new CART4-34 therapy effectively destroyed cancer cells in mice with lymphoma (i.e., its effectiveness was comparable to CART19), but it acted only on tumor cells without harming healthy B cells.
China is testing new effective therapy against resistant lymphoma.
A team from the Sun Yat-sen Cancer Center (China), led by Professor Jing Tang, in 2025 presented promising results in the treatment of aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma resistant to immunotherapy. In a clinical trial, they added epigenetically modified enzyme preparations capable of activating suppressed genes called endogenous retroviral elements to immunotherapy. As a result, 10 out of 21 patients achieved complete remission, and four showed a reduction in cancer signs. The overall two-year survival rate was 50%. The authors hope that their approach will change treatment strategies for patients with resistant tumors. They are currently continuing to test the efficacy and safety of the new treatment.
New immunotherapy offers hope for lymphoma cure
Researchers at Mount Sinai in New York City, led by Dr. Joshua Brody (pictured), have developed in 2019 a new immunotherapy method that helps stop the development of a particularly aggressive and difficult-to-treat blood cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. They created a vaccine that causes the body's immune cells (specifically, dendritic cells) to migrate to tumors and mark them with markers for other immune killer cells (T-lymphocytes). Brody says they inject the vaccine into one tumor, and the rest disappear on their own. The developers tested the vaccine on 11 patients with a severe form of lymphoma, and three of them experienced significant remission.
CAR-T immunotherapy shown high efficacy in treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Pharmaceutical company Kite Pharma in 2017 released the first results of clinical trials of the new CAR-T immunotherapy YESCARTA for the treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The new technology allows for the reprogramming of a lymphoma patient's own immune cells outside the body. Scientists modify the cells so that they carry so-called chimeric antigen receptors on their surface. The resulting modified cells begin to hunt cancer cells themselves and effectively destroy tumors. The study involved 101 patients with three different forms of lymphoma, all in the severe, terminal stage of the disease, when no treatments were effective. The report states that a third of these patients experienced complete remission after six months. Following the success of the clinical trials, the company's shares immediately rose by 25%. Kite Pharma's competitors, Juno Therapeutics and Novartis, are also conducting clinical trials of similar drugs.
Adcetris - world's first approved drug for treatment of lymphoma.
Seattle Genetics has received FDA approval for its drug Adcetris, intended for the treatment of malignant tumors - Hodgkin lymphoma and anaplastic large cell lymphoma. The drug is indicated for use in adult patients with relapsed forms of these diseases, as well as patients who have not responded to traditional treatments. Adcetris aims to destroy cancer cells, but, unlike standard chemotherapy, the drug does not destroy healthy cells and tissues. Adcetris is the first pharmacological drug for the treatment of Hodgkin's lymphoma approved by the FDA since 1977, and the first drug specifically recommended for the treatment of anaplastic large cell lymphoma.