GILBERT (AZFamily) -- A potential cure for a rare type of blood cancer is currently being used to treat 150 patients at various healthcare centers in the Valley.
Details about the medical breakthrough are being unveiled this week at a major national oncology conference.
It's called CARVYKTI, and it's a kind of therapy that genetically modifies a patient's immune system to fight cancer.
For patients like Susan Lehman, it's giving her health and hope.
"I trust God with my life and with what He has in His plans for me and so that gave me a sense of peace, but it still a scary a thing and telling the kids was hard," said Lehman.
It's been a decade since Lehman was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. The rare type of blood cancer develops in plasma cells in bone marrow.
"That was one of the first kind of things that we heard was well it's treatable, but it's not curable," said Lehman.
Over the years, the 60-year-old mother of four has been in and out of remission.
She's undergone two stem cell transplants and a slew of other treatments.
Then, in March, her oncologist, Banner Health Dr. Sumit Madan, had her try something new: CARVYKTI.
"These types of therapies have been revolutionizing the way we treat multiple myeloma," said Dr. Madan.
Lehman said the immunotherapy has made a big difference just two months in.
"Since then I'm back out hiking and pretty much back to normal," said Lehman.
CARVYKTI is an option for multiple myeloma patients when traditional cancer treatments are no longer effective.
"It utilizes the patients own immune cells to act against the cancer cells," said Dr. Madan.
It's been approved for three years, but new, longer-term data from a study show that CARVYKTI doesn't just slow down the progression of the disease; it helps patients live much longer.
"Historically the outcome of these patients is pretty poor with the average survival of under a year," said Dr. Madan.
It's being hailed as a major medical breakthrough, and even a possible cure.
"If you look at the average age of when a patient with multiple myeloma is diagnosed, they're about 70 years and so if I'm able to keep that patient alive for the next 10-15 years...and they're not dying from their cancer then to me it is a cure," said Dr. Madan.
And the words cure and cancer in the same sentence encourage patients like Lehman to keep fighting.
"I just can't even fathom, I really can't. It just would change my life," said Lehman. "This is the most hopeful that I've been in a long time."
The landmark data that illustrates this improved survival rate will be presented this week at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in Chicago.