Amplified Natural Killer Cell Immunotherapy Patient Cases
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is ANK therapy suitable for pediatric patients?
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Yes, if patients are able to stay calm during the 3 hour white blood cell extraction via leukapheresis
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Ideally, patients above 15 years old are recommended
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Patients below 15 years old will need to be assessed for treatment suitability. The youngest patient to undergo ANK therapy was less than 1 year old
Are there patient segments that are not suitable for ANK therapy?
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Patients who are not able to pull through the 3 week culturing period
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Patients who are not fit to fly to Japan (e.g cannot walk, eat, speak, etc..). These patients can only hope to increase their quality of life.
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Patients with Trousseau syndrome
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Patients with extremely small vessels (e.g patients who do repeated chemotherapy tend to blood vessels in poor condition). It is still possible to do ANK therapy, but it will be achieved via whole blood extraction. ANK therapy via leukapheresis will be done on their 2nd course, if required
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Leukemia patients with too much cancer cells in their blood. Chemotherapy is recommended before ANK therapy
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Brain cancer patients who still have blood brain barrier intact. However if blood brain barrier is broken (eg. via surgery, radiotherapy), these patients can receive ANK therapy
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Patients that have undergone organ transplant and are receiving strong immune suppression medication. These patients are difficult to treat, but there have been a few successful cases
How do you decide when to extend ANK therapy (i.e when do you go for 2nd or 3rd ANK therapy cycle)?
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There is no simple answer to this as it depends on the decision and skill of the doctor. What is important is to create a tailormade patient treatment plan
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Patients with progressive cancer that can be clearly seen in radiological imaging will most likely end up doing more than 1 course if the patient chooses to treat the cancer solely by ANK therapy