The London Clinic Offers Pioneering Blood Cancer Treatment for Myeloma

This marks a significant milestone for The London Clinic who are among the first centres in the UK to offer this life-changing immunotherapy treatment for individuals living with this incurable blood cancer. The treatment will be provided by an expert multi-disciplinary team of in-house Haemato-oncologists and specialists at London Haematology.

CARVYKTI® joins an existing portfolio of licensed CAR-T products and establishes The London Clinic’s, Duchess of Devonshire Wing Cancer Centre, as a centre of excellence, offering the largest array of CAR-Ts in the private sector.

Since 2019, The London Clinic has built a strong reputation as a centre for CAR-T cell therapy. It first offered Yescarta® to treat relapsed or hard-to-treat Large B-cell Lymphoma and Follicular Lymphoma, and later introduced Kymriah® for B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia and certain types of B-cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.

Myeloma, also known as multiple myeloma, is a complex and currently incurable blood cancer that arises from abnormal plasma cells in the bone marrow. It is the third most common blood cancer in the UK, with around 6,200 new cases diagnosed each year.

Although Myeloma cannot be cured, treatments have improved a lot over the past 20 years. These advances have helped people live longer and manage the disease better. Today, it's estimated that more than 33,000 people in the UK are living with Myeloma. However, it is still a difficult cancer that tends to return (relapse), often becoming harder to treat over time and leading to other health problems.

CARVYKTI® is a new type of treatment that offers real hope for long-term control of the disease. It may be especially helpful for people who have already tried many other treatments, like chemotherapy, stem cell transplants, and targeted therapies, without success.

What is Carvykti® CAR-T therapy?

CAR-T, or chimeric antigen receptor-T cell therapy is a new and advanced method of treating some forms of blood cancer. T-cells are a type of white blood cell, which form part of the immune system. They help us to detect and respond to infection and disease. CAR-T therapies work by collecting and then modifying one’s own T cells to attack their cancer through the recognition and targeting of specific protein receptors on the surface of their blood cancer cells.

Carvykti® (also called ciltacabtagene autoleucel) is one type of CAR-T therapy. It targets a protein called BCMA (B-cell maturation antigen), which is found on the surface of B-cells — a group of white blood cells that includes plasma cells in their later stages.

Multiple Myeloma (MM) is a blood cancer that affects plasma cells. MM cells have much higher levels of BCMA, making it an ideal target. By focusing on BCMA, Carvykti® can destroy cancer cells while causing less harm to healthy cells compared to traditional chemotherapy. This targeted approach helps improve treatment outcomes for people with MM.

The Carvykti® process:

Step 1: Collecting your T-Cells

Small volumes of blood are drawn into a machine called a cell separator which separates your white and red blood cells. This painless process is called leukapheresis, or in simple terms, a ‘cell collection’.

Step 2: Modifying your T- cells

Once collected, your white blood cells are frozen in our on-site Stem Cell Laboratory. They are then sent to a specialist manufacturing laboratory, where the T cells are selected and engineered into your custom-made Carvykti® CAR-T cells. Your T-cells are then sent back to The London Clinic, ready for you to receive as your personalised Carvykti® CAR-T treatment.

Step 3: Conditioning pre-Carvykti®.

You will be admitted to our specialist stem cell transplant unit to receive, low dose ‘conditioning chemotherapy’. This helps create optimal conditions and available bone marrow capacity to receive Carvykti®.

Step 4: Receivng Carvykti®.

After completing your last dose of conditioning chemotherapy, you’ll receive your Carvykti®. Your CAR-T cells will continually divide and multiply in your system. This ensures that you have a steady stream of cells capable of recognising and destroying Myeloma cells over time.

Step 5: Monitoring after Carvykti®

You will remain an inpatient for approximately 2-3 weeks, during which time we will continue to closely monitor for signs or symptoms of anticipated immune reactions to the treatment called CRS (Cytokine Release Syndrome) or ICANS (immune effector cell associated neurotoxicity syndrome).  

On discharge, we ask you to stay within one hour of The London Clinic for at least a month.