A 3-year-old boy battling chemo-resistant cancer that had spread from his liver to his lungs and possibly his bones was declared cancer-free after just two doses of the experimental therapy.<\/p>\n
![\"Toddler](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/141947325.jpg\")
CAR T-cell therapy has shown promising effects on blood cancers, but it\u2019s limited when treating solid tumors, until now. MIA Studio \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n
The report sharing the progress researchers at Texas Children\u2019s, Baylor College of Medicine and Seattle Children\u2019s was published this month in the New England Journal of Medicine<\/a>.<\/p>\n The toddler had been diagnosed with hepatoblastoma<\/a>, a common form of childhood liver cancer. He had a massive tumor measuring 4.4 \u00d7 3.8 \u00d7 2.8 inches.<\/p>\n Despite multiple rounds of chemotherapy and surgery to remove the tumor, the cancer returned. It metastasized to his lungs, and there was evidence it had spread to his bones.<\/p>\n Doctors then tried CAR T-cell therapy, which involves taking a patient\u2019s white blood cells (T cells) and genetically engineering them to become cancer-fighting machines.<\/p>\n After receiving two doses of the experimental GPC3-CAR treatment over eight weeks, he had no remaining signs of the disease, even after one year \u2014 indicating complete regression.<\/p>\n \u201cThis study provides evidence that these novel CAR T cells may be a safe and effective modality for hepatoblastoma and highlights the need for further assessment in patients with GPC3+ solid tumors,\u201d study co-author and pediatric oncologist Andras Heczey said.<\/p>\n Liver cancer is the third-leading cause<\/a> of cancer-related deaths globally, yet hepatoblastoma typically relies on radiation and surgery<\/a> to remove cancerous cells and tumors \u2014 methods that aren\u2019t always successful.<\/p>\n And while CAR T-cell therapy is an innovative treatment, it\u2019s only FDA-approved<\/a> to mitigate certain types of leukemias, lymphomas and multiple myeloma.<\/p>\n This particular therapy has proven to be a difficult way to treat solid tumors due to the hostile chemical shield<\/a> that blocks and destroys immune cells.<\/p>\n Tumor cells can also look like healthy cells, thanks to the tumors using surrounding healthy cells (like fibroblasts and regulatory immune cells) to create a barrier.<\/p>\n![\"Collage](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/report-published-new-england-journal-141947138.jpg\")
A hepatoblastoma tumor from liver cancer shrank after a groundbreaking CAR T-cell treatment in a 3-year-old boy. Steffin et al., NEJM, 2026<\/p>\n