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He reckons Novartis` Cart BCMA has cured him of Multiple Myeloma !

Dr. Wright was placed on the list for the clinical trial of CAR-T therapy for multiple myeloma at the University of Pennsylvania. His condition was becoming critical by this time. There were two individuals ahead of Dr. Wright to be treated in the clinical trial, but both dropped out and Dr. Wright ended up being their first multiple myeloma patient to be treated with CAR-T.

Dr. Wright said he didn’t have a moment’s hesitation about participating. “I was all in. There were risks but I had basically run out of options. I know enough immunology to understand what they were trying to do and I thought it had a good chance of success,” said Dr. Wright, also Professor of Internal Medicine who holds an M.D. and Ph.D. from Stanford.

The risk turned out to be real. The clinical trial he was in called for participants to get their CAR-T cells in three doses. The first dose went well. But when he received the second dose there was a reaction. You might say the CAR-T therapy worked too well: His body had so many cancer cells and they were being attacked so effectively by the CAR T-cells, that his body was overwhelmed by the immune response. It’s what happens when you get the flu – the fever, the chills, the body aches are caused by the body’s immune system fighting the viral invader. But in Dr. Wright’s case, the immune response was so great that he was hospitalized for two weeks, receiving supportive therapy.

But all the while, the cancerous B cells were being beaten back. By the time the crisis was over, Dr. Wright’s “light-chain numbers” – the indicator of cancer – had dropped from 6,725 to an astonishing 5.

He remains cancer-free more than two years after the treatment.

“I considered myself cured,” said Dr. Wright, who has been with UT Southwestern, which is recognizing its 75th anniversary this year, for 40 years.

While his physicians are more cautious – they prefer to call it a “sustained complete remission” – his success is inspiring for oncologists like Dr. Larry Anderson, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, who recently began enrolling patients for a CAR-T multiple myeloma trial at UT Southwestern. “Dr. Wright’s story is an example of why it’s so thrilling to be part of this pioneering effort,” Dr. Anderson said.

HTTP://www.utsouthwestern.edu/newsroom/articles/year-2018/wright-car-t.html