Immune CAR‑T therapy has, for the first time, enabled a five-year remission in patients with severe multiple myeloma—a form of blood cancer that was previously considered incurable. A study involving 97 people was conducted by Legend Biotech (China).
Participants had already received all possible lines of therapy and had no other treatment options.
During the trial, patients were given reprogrammed immune cells capable of specifically destroying multiple myeloma cells. In one third of patients, the tumor disappeared and did not return for 5 years without additional therapy. Among the rest, most showed a significant response, and the average relapse‑free survival was nearly 3 years—compared with 4–6 months in the past under similar circumstances.
This is the largest breakthrough in multiple myeloma therapy in decades. Medicine is changing the picture of “incurable”: previously, patients with such a diagnosis could count only on months of life, whereas now— for some, at least—on years.
