The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved a groundbreaking new kind of immunotherapy for people with hard-to-treat blood cancers. Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy takes a patient’s T cells and reprograms them in a lab to recognize and attack cancer cells, creating a customized “living drug” for each patient.

Last August, the FDA gave the green light to Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel), from Novartis, for children and young adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. In October, the agency OK’d Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel), from Kite Pharma. Click here to learn more about this cutting-edge treatment.