TThe Food and Drug Administration approved on Friday the first personalized cell therapy to treat patients with advanced multiple myeloma. It will be marketed under the Abecma brand by its manufacturers, Bristol Myers Squibb and Bluebird Bio.
Multiple myeloma is a cancer that forms in plasma cells, a type of white blood cell that helps fight infections. In people with multiple myeloma, malignant plasma cells accumulate in the bone marrow, where they exclude healthy blood cells, causing tumors, kidney damage, bone destruction and impaired immune function.
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