Breakthrough cancer therapy now available as outpatient treatment — with just one infusion

 Orlando, Fla., Aug. 27, 2025 — AdventHealth is providing a new outpatient myeloma treatment, delivered in just one infusion to help patients feel whole and get the quality care they deserve while staying close to home. It’s called CAR T-cell therapy, which reprograms a patient’s own immune cells to target and destroy cancer cells.

“This therapy is improving quality of life with fewer treatments, better outcomes and a real chance at remission,” said Dr. Rushang Patel, a hematologist-oncologist who specializes in cell therapy at AdventHealth Cancer Institute. “It’s a game changer in our fight against cancer.”

“It sounds like science fiction, it doesn’t seem like it’s a real thing, but it definitely is.” - Jeff Bishop, patient

AdventHealth is the largest provider in Central Florida offering CAR T-cell therapy, having first introduced it in 2019; and the only center with Cilta-cel (the CAR-T cell treatment that gives the hope of cure in myeloma patients). Through clinical trials, physicians have been able to expand the treatment to help patients with other forms of cancer like myeloma.

The treatment works by taking a patient’s own white blood cells, retraining them to identify myeloma cells, and then reintroducing them into the body, during a single infusion visit.

“The procedure is phenomenal, the recovery time is quicker and it’s just better in every single category,” said Jeff Bishop, the first myeloma patient to receive the outpatient CAR T-cell treatment at AdventHealth. Bishop was diagnosed in August of 2020 – for years, the single father had to undergo rounds of chemotherapy all while working and taking care of his daughter.

When a stem cell transplant didn’t last, he was approved for CAR T-cell therapy. “I got that in December of last year, and today, I’m in full remission, there's no detections anywhere,” Bishop said. “It sounds like science fiction, it doesn’t seem like it’s a real thing, but it definitely is.”

This commitment to innovation and whole-person care is reflected in AdventHealth’s recognition as the No. 1 hospital in Florida, with its Cancer Institute ranked 30th in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, and a high performing rating for its Leukemia, Lymphoma and Myeloma care.

According to recent data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology, one-third of patients treated with CAR T-cell therapy have lived five or more years without needing additional treatment, a result never seen before in the disease.

“The results we’ve seen in our patients are promising and it gives us hope that we could in fact be one step closer to finding a cure,” Dr. Patel said.