A study led by researchers from Hadassah-University Medical Center in Jerusalem found a 90 percent success rate in treating multiple myeloma and putting patients into remission, the Jerusalem Post reported May 29.
Multiple myeloma is the most common type of plasma cell tumor, according to the CDC. Myeloma cancer diagnoses have gradually increased in the U.S. throughout the last two decades. Meanwhile, deaths from it have steadily declined in the same time period, CDC data shows.
The results from the Israel study may improve outcomes even more. According to the Jerusalem Post, the new therapy may prolong patients' lives. Of the 74 patients who received the therapy, 90 percent went into complete remission, the outlet reports.
The therapy is complex and based on genetic engineering technology, which "boosts the patient's own immune system to destroy the cancer," and is known as Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Therapy, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The therapy has displayed "impressive results," Polina Stepensky, the director of Hadassah Ein Kerem's Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Immunotherapy for Adults and Children noted. It allows patients who once had a prognosis of only two years to live, and now "have many more years to live – and with an excellent quality of life," she said.