🩸 Previously deadly blood cancer completely disappears in one-third of patients

• One-third of 97 patients with incurable blood cancer became tumor-free after immunotherapy and remain healthy after five years.
• The treatment uses the patient's own white blood cells that are modified to attack the cancer.
• The cost is much lower than traditional medications since it is a one-time treatment.

The treatment works through the patient's own cells

A study with 97 patients who had end-stage multiple myeloma shows that 32 of them became completely tumor-free after immunotherapy. The cancer has not returned after five years, reports the New York Times.

Multiple myeloma is a common blood cancer that doctors consider incurable. The patients in the study had undergone multiple treatments and were facing hospice when they received the immunotherapy as a last resort.

The immunotherapy is called CAR-T and was developed by Legend Biotech, a company founded in China. The treatment consists of the patient's own white blood cells that are removed and modified to attack the cancer.

The cells are then infused back into the patient. The treatment has already shown success against other types of blood cancer like leukemia.

Dr. Norman Sharpless, former director of the National Cancer Institute, says this is the first time in 30 years that doctors are talking seriously about a cure for multiple myeloma.

The results were published at cancer conference

The study was presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology and published in The Journal of Clinical Oncology. Johnson & Johnson funded the research and has an exclusive licensing agreement with Legend Biotech.

36,000 Americans develop multiple myeloma each year. The disease eats away at bone tissue so it looks like holes in the skeleton. Bones collapse and patients can lose 6 inches in height.

Treatment advances have increased median survival from two years to ten years over the past two decades. But no cures have existed previously.

The patients had undergone many treatments

The patients in the study had tried all available treatments. Their immune systems were weakened after years of therapy. Doctors describe them as "heavily pretreated."

Despite this, one-third of the patients were completely tumor-free after the CAR-T treatment. Doctors say that even though the majority did not survive, the result for the third who became healthy was remarkable.

Johnson & Johnson compared with data from similar patients who did not receive the treatment. They lived about one year.

The treatment is much cheaper than traditional medications

The CAR-T treatment is given only once while traditional medications for multiple myeloma cost over $100,000 per year. The total cost can become millions of dollars over time.

Dr. Carl June from the University of Pennsylvania says the cost of traditional medications is "hideously expensive" and they don't even cure the patient.

Johnson & Johnson is now testing whether the treatment works as first-line therapy earlier in the disease course. Dr. Kenneth Anderson from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute says cure is a realistic expectation if the treatment is used early.

Patients live normal lives after treatment

Anne Stovell from New York was one of the patients whose cancer disappeared. She was diagnosed in 2010 and tried nine different medications with severe side effects before receiving the CAR-T treatment.

The treatment required three weeks of hospitalization but six years later she has no signs of cancer. She says it's still hard to believe the myeloma is gone.

Every year she gets a bone marrow biopsy that confirms the cancer has not returned. She describes it as a relief every time the result is negative.

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