A 47-year-old woman in Germany was cured of three severe autoimmune diseases—autoimmune hemolytic anemia, immune thrombocytopenia, and antiphospholipid syndrome—using CAR-T cell therapy, traditionally used for blood cancers. This breakthrough highlights the potential of CAR-T therapy beyond oncology, offering new hope for patients with refractory autoimmune conditions.
An incredible success story for CAR-T cell therapy. Car-T cell therapy is “borrowed” from cancer treatment. Image in Creative Commons. A 47-year-old woman in Germany had spent more than a decade battling three severe autoimmune diseases at once: autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA), immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), and antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). The team turned to CAR-T cell therapy. For the last decade, this technology has gained praise as a cure for blood cancers like leukemia. ... Stay ahead with ZME Science and subscribe. Please check your inbox and confirm your subscription. Discarded Thymus glands offer new hope for people with autoimmune disease · New treatment boosts survival rates for lung cancer patients Fabian Müller at the University Hospital of Erlangen in Germany in 2025, she was “refractory,” a clinical word that often means “we have nothing left to try.” She required daily infusions of blood. But there was one silver lining. The common denominator in all three of her diseases was a rogue faction of B cells. Then, doctors decided to try an extreme solution, a reboot of her entire immune system. They used CAR-T cell therapy, a therapy that has shown great promise in cancer treatment.
Original title: “Revolutionary Therapy Cured Three "Incurable" Autoimmune Diseases in a Patient”