How is CAR-T Therapy Used to Treat Multiple Myeloma?

CAR T-Cell Therapy is an exciting new treatment that uses the body’s immune system to destroy cancerous cells.  But how is CAR-T Therapy used to treat multiple myeloma? 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. The process is typically as follows:

1. T-cells are taken from a patient’s blood.
2. Then the gene for a special receptor that binds to a specific protein on the patient’s cancer cells is added to the T-cells in the laboratory. The special receptor is called a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR).
3. Large numbers of the CAR T-cells are grown in the laboratory and given back to 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. “It’s not available yet as an FDA-approved treatment, but there are multiple centers doing this as a clinical trial,” says Dr. Nina Shah, hematologist at UCSF. “We’re really excited and hope that we can make this more available for as many patients as possible.”

CAR T treatments are being tried in a number of cancers including non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and leukemia. A recent study of one kind of lymphoma found that 39% of people treated with CAR-T therapy remained in remission for two years. In commenting on the CAR T study, Dr. Joseph McGuirk, director of Hematologic Malignancies and Cellular Therapeutics at the University of Kansas Hospital told SurvivorNet, “It’s not hyperbole. I’ve been a blood cancer specialist for 30 years now. In my career, this is by far the most exciting, hopeful, promising time in cancer therapeutics.”

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