Chinese scientists find possible cell therapy for multiple myeloma

Clinical trial also found that cytokine release syndrome (CRS), a common and potentially dangerous side effect of ACR T-cell, occurred in 85 percent of patients receiving the therapy, though the symptoms were mild and manageable in majority of the cases.

Michael S. Sabel, fellow of the America College of Surgeons, called the trial of the therapy and the science behind it "revolutionary". "I think this really opens up the door for using the sort of precision immunotherapy to expand the potential of immunotherapy to a wider net of patients," Sabel said.

Wanhong Zhao, a main organizer of the current study on CAR T-cell and associate director of hematology at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, compared the cancer to a ball, saying the therapy in the past was to use one hand to catch the ball, which is prone to fail.

"The new therapy enables us to use two hands to grasp the ball," which can hold the ball tight and then kill it, Zhao said.

Frank Fan, chief scientific officer and founder of Legend Biotech, told Xinhua that this new therapy his company developed in the past three years is a unique one in the world, and Legend Biotech claims full intellectual property right over it.

Multiple myeloma is a cancer of plasma cells from bone marrow. It is not really responding to standard chemotherapies. Nearly 86,000 patients are diagnosed with myeloma each year, and the number may continue to increase as the world population is aging. The disease usually occurs above 60 years old and is more common in men than women.