New treatments for blood cancers, new hope for patients

Blood cancers like multiple myeloma have long been considered incurable. But in the last decade, the development of precision immunotherapy treatments has offered patients months or even years of extended life. One such treatment, known as CAR-T cell therapy, turns immune system T cells into killers of cancer cells. They have been so transformative that earlier this year, doctors wrote that CAR-T had cured a man who in 2010 was the second patient to receive the treatment.

CAR-T therapies are now approved to treat a variety of blood cell cancers, including myeloma, lymphoma and some types of leukemia. But drugmakers have had difficulty keeping up with the demand for CAR-T cells, creating a wrenching dilemma for doctors who must decide which blood cancer patients need the therapy immediately and which can afford to wait.

And as promising as CAR-T has been for blood cancers, it is far from a panacea. The treatment does not work for all patients. Many others eventually suffer a relapse of their cancers. And CAR-T has so far produced uninspiring results for solid tumor cancers like those of the lung and kidney, although researchers are making progress here through additional engineering and technologies to enhance the performance of CAR-T cells.

The articles in this e-book track the changing prognosis for blood cancer patients and the future potential of this game-changing approach to treatment.