Understanding the Efficacy and Safety of Stem Cell Therapy and CAR T-cell Therapy in Leukemia Patients

Abstract

CAR T-cell therapy and Stem cell therapy are effective treatments with varying benefits, efficacy, and safety for patients with recurrent leukemia. CAR T-cell therapy and Stem cell therapy are both effective immunotherapies that use engineered cells to combat cancers. The implications of this study allow patients to understand the benefits and disadvantages of both therapies and paves the way for future advancement within immunotherapy. This review selected studies from reputable medical journals, clinical trials and peer-reviewed research published within the last five years obtained from multiple databases including PubMed, Wiley Online Library, and Google Scholar. We compared the efficacy and safety of CAR T-Cell therapy to Stem cell therapy in patients with leukemia using meta narrative principles to synthesize relevant information. Here we show that CAR T-cell therapy is a safer treatment option since its side effects such as cytokine release syndrome (CRS), neurotoxicity, and infections can be managed with secondary treatment. These treatment approaches include corticosteroids and supportive care aid in patient recovery within two weeks to a month. Compared to CAR T-cell therapy, Stem cell therapy has a higher risk of graft vs. host disease, suggesting that it is less effective for patients with recurrent leukemia. Furthermore, our results indicate that CAR T-cell therapy is a safer and more effective treatment for patients with relapsing leukemia. However, the combination of CAR T-cell therapy with Stem Cell therapy has shown to be the most effective method of treatment for patients with refractory leukemia.