A relatively new form of immunotherapy is now becoming an option for multiple myeloma patients who have exhausted other treatments. CAR T-Cell Therapy is currently only approved in clinical trials and only available for use at academic medical centers, but it has shown to eradicate myeloma cells in a way that hasn't been possible with the existing treatment regimen. Typically, patients are enrolled in the therapy once all other treatment options have been exhausted and the myeloma has relapsed, but that is not a hard and fast rule. If you’d like to enroll in CAR T-Cell Therapy, you should speak to your oncologist about the possibility of enrolling in a clinical trial, regardless of your stage of treatment and whether or not you’ve relapsed.
The way the therapy works is by using the body's immune system to destroy cancerous cells. The immune system's main soldier in fighting off viruses and bacteria is the T-cell. Unfortunately, the body's T-cells aren't typically strong enough to fight off myeloma cells, but scientists have recently been able to extract T-cells from a patient's body, modify them, and then reinsert them back into the patient.
Read More- T-cells are taken from a patient's blood.
- Then a receptor that binds to a specific protein only expressed on myeloma cells is added to the T-cells in a laboratory. The receptor added is called a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR).
- Large numbers of the CAR T-cells are grown in the laboratory and infused back into the patient.
Preliminary evidence has shown that these modified CAR T-Cells have a powerful impact at eradicating myeloma cells in a way that hasn't been possible with the existing treatment regimen. Currently, responses to the therapy last about 12-18 months, leaving much to be improved upon before it is FDA approved. According to Dr. Ken Anderson, Director of the Multiple Myeloma Center at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, "It’s very promising technology, but it’s a platform upon which many new attempts are being made to enhance the potency, make it more safe, but especially see if we can’t make it durable and have long-term disease-free survival and potentially a cure."
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