A revolutionary immunotherapy has stunned doctors by making an aggressive, previously incurable blood cancer vanish in some patients—and for the first time, experts are daring to talk about a potential cure. A study with 97 patients with advanced multiple myeloma, whose disease had returned despite multiple treatments and who faced limited life expectancy, involved giving them a CAR-T immunotherapy developed by Legend Biotech, a China-founded company, per the New York Times. About a third of the participants saw their cancer disappear, and for those patients, the disease hasn't returned even after five years, a first for the condition.
Results, presented at this year's American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting and published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, have prompted some oncologists to talk about the possibility of a "cure," language rarely associated with myeloma. The treatment, branded Carvykti and marketed by Johnson & Johnson, involves an infusion of the patient's own white blood cells, modified to attack cancer cells, and can require weeks of hospitalization. Though CAR-T comes with a high price tag ($555,310 for Carvykti), it's administered only once.
Though most patients didn't achieve remission, the fact that roughly a third did—especially among those with no standard options left—is considered remarkable by experts. Patient Anne Stovell, whose cancer vanished posttreatment, describes lingering uncertainty with each checkup, though tests have remained clear for six years, per the Times. Johnson & Johnson is now testing CAR-T as an early-line therapy, with hopes that using it sooner could increase chances of a lasting remission.
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