IMMUNE-BOOSTING treatment can slash the risk of cancer spreading in people with incurable blood tumours.
A trial found pioneering CAR-T therapy stops the growth of myeloma in patients who have run out of options.
CAR-T therapy trains white blood cells to attack cancer in a lab and then re-injects them into the patient’s blood
It works by turbo-charging white blood cells in a lab and injecting them back into the body to seek and destroy cancer cells.
Around 24,000 Brits have myeloma blood cancer and there are 6,000 new cases each year.
It cannot be cured and many patients eventually become resistant to the best medicines, leaving doctors unable to stop it spreading.
Scientists say a type of immunotherapy called Cilta-cel will keep it at bay when this happens.
Trials on 419 patients found it slashed the risk of cancer spreading by 74 per cent compared to normal treatment.
Dr Oreofe Odejide, from the American Society of Clinical Oncology hailed it as “remarkably effective”.
Eighty-five per cent of patients saw their cancer shrink when they had the therapy, compared to 67 per cent on routine medication.
The treatment, known as ciltacabtagene autoleucel, can be used from the first time a cancer bounces back after treatment.
Everyone in the trial had had up to three rounds of treatment before trying CAR-T.
Study author Dr Binod Dhakal said at the ASCO conference: “These findings show it is highly effective in patients with multiple myeloma as early as after their first relapse.”
The treatment is not yet available in the UK because manufacturer Janssen said it could not make enough to run an NHS programme.
Patient charity Myeloma UK said the decision, in March this year, was “devastating” and vowed to lobby the firm and regulators to roll it out.
