CAR-T THERAPY LAB

Our 2023 BMO Ride for Cancer participants and supporters are the catalyst for establishing the region’s first-ever CAR-T therapy lab at the QEII Health Sciences Centre; a state-of-the-art space dedicated to genetically modifying a patient’s own immune cells (T-cells) to fight their cancer with unparalleled personalization and accuracy.

CAR-T therapy is a revolutionary and lifesaving immunotherapy that’s a final lifeline and potential cure for blood cancer patients who’ve exhausted all other treatment options.

While CAR-T therapy has been available to local patients since 2022, access is limited as a patient’s T-cells must be shipped to the United States and back for treatment. The upcoming construction and opening of the QEII’s CAR-T therapy lab will mark the first time that patients’ immune cells can be modified to target their cancer, right here at home. 

Benefits will include:

• offering the most personalized and effective treatment option for certain blood cancer patients who otherwise would not survive; 
• ensuring faster treatment times for patients by unlocking the ability to modify and produce CAR-T cells in Atlantic Canada for the first time; 
• minimizing disruption to families’ lives as the timeframe between collecting a patient’s T-cells and reinfusing them within the patient to fight their cancer is slashed in half, thanks to locally-produced cells;
• more accurate and effective treatment by funding the latest technology available; 
• increasing patient access to more clinical trials; 
• positioning Atlantic Canada’s largest and most specialized cancer centre as a national and global leader in CAR-T therapy and production; 
• recruiting and retaining world-leading cancer care experts and much, much more. 

Charles Jesso knows firsthand the difference this lab will make for future patients and families. In March 2022, Charles became the first patient in Nova Scotia to receive this groundbreaking treatment, which involved shipping his immune cells to California and back as a local lab was not available.

“I went from being given just three months to live and saying my goodbyes to walking my daughter down the aisle at her wedding this past November,” says Charles, pictured with his daughter, Angela.