CAR T-Cell Therapy in India

CAR T-cell therapy is a form of personalised cellular immunotherapy in which a patient's own T-cells, a type of immune cell, are collected, genetically modified in a laboratory to recognise a specific marker on their cancer cells, and then reinfused back into the body. Once reinfused, these engineered cells multiply and seek out and destroy cancer cells carrying that marker. It is sometimes called a "living drug" because the treatment is made individually from each patient's own cells rather than manufactured as a standard drug.

India's own CAR-T therapy: NexCAR19

NexCAR19 is India's first indigenously developed CAR T-cell therapy, created by ImmunoACT, a company incubated at IIT Bombay, in partnership with Tata Memorial Centre. Approved by India's drug regulator in 2023, it targets CD19, a marker found on certain B-cell blood cancers, and costs a fraction of equivalent imported CAR-T products used in the US and Europe, without a different underlying approach or clinical rationale.

Who is currently eligible

NexCAR19 is currently approved for specific relapsed or treatment-resistant blood cancers: B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) in patients aged 15 and above, and certain types of large B-cell lymphoma, including diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), in patients who have already tried at least two prior lines of treatment without lasting success. It is not currently a first-line treatment, nor is it approved for solid tumours, an area still being researched globally. Your haemato-oncologist confirms eligibility based on your specific diagnosis, cancer subtype and treatment history.

Why monitoring matters so much

The most serious known side effect of CAR T-cell therapy is cytokine release syndrome (CRS), an intense immune reaction that can occur as the engineered cells become active in the body, along with a risk of neurological side effects. Because of this, patients are closely monitored, usually with an inpatient stay including ICU-level monitoring capability, for a defined period after infusion. This monitoring is a core part of the treatment, not an optional add-on, and is a major reason the process takes weeks rather than days.