The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved ciltacabtagene autoleucel (Carvykti) for people with multiple myeloma that either no longer responds to treatment or has recurred. The drug is the second CAR T-cell therapy, a type of personalized immunotherapy, approved for multiple myeloma. Faith E. Davies, MD, director of the Center for Blood Cancers at NYU Langone Health’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, tells NCI Cancer Currents Blog that even with currently available drugs, multiple myeloma returns in a majority of people.

“Having another therapeutic approach in our toolbox is so important,” says Dr. Davies, professor in the Department of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and director of the Clinical Myeloma Program at Perlmutter Cancer Center. “CAR T-cell therapy works in a completely different way than our standard treatments, and, therefore, it offers a different way of killing drug-resistant myeloma cells, which really is the key.”

Read more from NCI Cancer Currents Blog.