Patients’ Access to Advanced Cancer Therapies: Ethics and Equity of Access
2021
This project uses expert interviews and doctrinal research to investigate the legal and ethical issues around delivering access to advanced cancer therapies, focusing on Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell Immunotherapy (CAR-T).
CAR-T therapy involves isolating a patient’s T-cells, which are engineered to attack the patient’s cancer cells when placed back into the body. It offers immense potential for cancer-care, and where successful can lead to full remission of cancer.
However, CAR-T therapy can also pose risks of life-threatening side-effects in some cases, and careful choices around who would benefit from access to such therapies are needed. Furthermore, due to the costs of CAR-T therapy it is not currently accessible to all patients. This project examines the legal and ethical issues around the provision of and access to CAR-T therapies for patients.
The Access and Provision of CAR-T Therapies in Ireland for Cancer Care Report was launched in October 2023
You can read the report here
Publications:
Aisling McMahon, Alanna Kells and Sinéad Masterson. The Transformative Potential of CAR-T Therapies: Need for Deeper Consideration of Ethics & Equity of Access for Patients. J Medical Ethics, March 2024. The Transformative Potential of CAR-T Therapies: Need for Deeper Consideration of Ethics & Equity of Access for Patients – Journal of Medical Ethics blog (bmj.com)
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