Healthcare Policy: Myeloma UK's Call for Equitable NHS Access to CAR-T Cell Treatment

In recent weeks, several hospitals in the UK have begun treating myeloma patients privately with CAR-T cell treatment.

Myeloma UK, the only organisation in the UK exclusively dedicated to myeloma and related conditions, firmly believes that everyone should be able to access treatment, regardless of the ability to pay. They are committed to working with everyone involved to make CAR-T cell treatment available for people with myeloma on the NHS.   

Lifted from their recent blog post published in March 2025, Myeloma UK’s Senior Policy Officer, Amy Capper, explains what CAR-T cell treatment is, and what they’re doing to campaign for equal access.

What is CAR-T cell treatment?  

CAR-T cell (chimeric antigen receptor T cell) treatment uses the body’s immune system to kill myeloma cells. The patient’s own T cells are collected and genetically modified in a laboratory so that they can recognise myeloma cells. The modified T cells are then infused back into the patient and can attack myeloma cells.  

What is Myeloma UK doing and why?  

While the treatment is not yet available for people with myeloma in the UK on the NHS – although there are some clinical trials running – Myeloma UK is fighting hard for access to new life-changing treatments like CAR-T cell treatment.  

We’ve joined together with our supporter Jason, who was fortunate to receive CAR-T cell treatment through a clinical trial, to call for the treatment to be made available on the NHS. As part of our work, Jason’s story was featured on the BBC last week. 

Jason was diagnosed with myeloma in 2014. Over the next nine years, Jason’s cancer returned three times and by spring 2023 he was told he had reached the end of the line. Thankfully, he was one of 11 people selected for a clinical trial in the UK to receive the pioneering new treatment known as cilta-cel (ciltacabtagene autoleucel) (Carvykti™), a type of CAR-T cell treatment.  

15 months on, Jason is in remission for the very first time:   

“Until this treatment, I had never been in remission. Now they’re saying it’s undetectable. I never thought when I was diagnosed more than 10 years ago that I would ever get to this point. It feels surreal after all this time.  

“There were 11 people in the trial in the whole of the UK and I know other people weren’t as fortunate.  

“I want to give people hope and put pressure on the system to get this treatment where it needs to be. I am doing really well. It is fair to say I am at my best place since I was diagnosed, I have more energy and no side effects. I’m getting married next year.  

“It’s a bit of a gamble, you don’t know which treatment is going to work for you. That’s why we need more treatments like this available to people.”  

Shelagh McKinlay, Director of Research and Advocacy said:

“Jason’s story shows just how important it is to have access to innovative treatments for people with myeloma.  

However, access to these treatments should never be on the ability to pay. That’s why we have joined together with Jason to make the call for CAR-T cell treatments to be made available on the NHS.  

Until we have a cure, Myeloma UK will continue  fighting for all patients to have as many options as possible to keep their cancer at bay.” 

The specific CAR-T cell treatment that Jason was able to access through the clinical trial, cilta-cel, was initially put forward to be assessed by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in a bid to make it available on the NHS. 

But the appraisal was terminated in March 2023 after the NICE drug approval process was halted.  

The case for approving CAR-T cell treatment in myeloma is challenging because the treatments are complex and difficult to manufacture and the trial data, while very promising, has not been as strong as in some other cancers.  

Since CAR-T cell treatment trials were first introduced, the UK has had other landmark drug approvals, particularly two new bi-specific antibodies, elranatamab (Elrexfio®) and teclistamab (Tecvayli®). This is great news and means that people living with myeloma have more options to treat their cancer.  

CAR-T cell treatment still can play a vital role in the treatment pathway and access to it should not be based on ability to pay.  

What’s next?  

Over the next few weeks Myeloma UK will be getting in touch with politicians as part of our ongoing campaigns and advocacy work. We will be making the case for improving access to CAR-T cell treatment for everyone that needs it.

If you are interested in hearing more then please email policy@myeloma.org.uk and we will keep you updated on this work.  

FAQs 

Can I access CAR-T cell treatments now?  

There are some new clinical trials that are taking place for these types of treatment. You can use our Myeloma Trial Finder to see which clinical trials are open to new patients. We would always recommend that you speak to your healthcare team to discuss the best options for your treatment. 

Are there other similar types of treatment available for people living with myeloma?

CAR-T cell treatment is a type of immunotherapy. Immunotherapies are a group of treatments which harness the patient’s immune system to kill myeloma cells. Although CAR-T cell treatments are only available on the NHS through clinical trials for now, we are now seeing more and more emerging immunotherapy treatments for myeloma. Read more about the different immunotherapies here. 

In recent years, we have seen approval of monoclonal antibodies like daratumumab (Darzalex®) and isatuximab (Sarclisa®), and last year we helped to make the first bispecific antibodies, elranatamab  and teclistamab, available on the NHS. 

Help get more treatments approved on the NHS - for more information, click here.