They do car t at Emory, but the side effects are daunting and honestly scarier than a transplant. But, I am optimistic for the future.

Hi Jane Goodwin described it pretty well. I have read that article from cancer.net. As far as I know it is still only being offered in Clinical Trial and only to high risk patients who have tried multiple therapies and failed. It is not to replace SCT’s. It will be very expensive when not offered in a Clinical Trial and it won’t be covered by insurance companies for a long time. It is cheaper and an available therapy in China. There are some very severe side effects associated with Car T but they are trying to reduce the toxicity. There is some very promising results and has been FDA approved for other cancers but not yet for MM. I believe it will be a therapy that is very promising in the future.

Jane, Melphalan didn't make my neuropathy worse. Hope it doesn't with you. We are all different😇

I would be interested in hearing what your oncologist at Moffitt thinks of this therapy. After you talk with them, please post again what they have to say about it.

I don’t know as much as I would like. hence the question. but I will tell you the little I do know.
it is a type of immunotherapy. T cells are immune cells. TheT cells are removed from your blood and treated in a lab so they have specific proteins that target your cancer cells. CAR stands for chimeric antigen receptor.
THis therapy is still being studied and there are risks, but there have been good results.
There is an article titled CAR-T Cell Immunotherapy: the 2018 Advance of the Year that you can find on cancer.net website that explains more. iIt made me curious enough to want to talk to doctors about it as an option when we discuss SCT. Another plus...the T cells put your immune system to work and they claim they continue to work in your body to fight the cancer
It all sounds promising, but I want my oncologist and the doctors from Moffitt to give me their advise about the best options as I move forward, and would love to hear from anyone who has used this therapy..the more we know, the better!