Cancer Treatment Now Resetting Immune Systems for MS Patients

When Jan Janisch-Hanzlik's multiple sclerosis got so bad she was afraid to carry her grandchildren, she knew she had to try something bold.

The 49-year-old nurse from Blair, Nebraska, became the first patient in a groundbreaking trial at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. She received CAR T-cell therapy, a cancer treatment now being repurposed to tackle autoimmune diseases.

CAR T works by removing a patient's own immune cells, reprogramming them to hunt down problem cells, then putting them back in the body. Originally approved in 2017 for aggressive leukemia, the treatment has given many cancer patients long-term remission.

Now doctors are using the same approach for autoimmune conditions like MS, lupus, and stiff person syndrome. The idea is surprisingly simple: both blood cancers and autoimmune diseases involve B cells behaving badly, so the same targeted approach might work for both.

The results are already remarkable. A December 2025 study of 26 people with stiff person syndrome found most could walk faster after just 16 weeks. Eight patients no longer needed their walkers or canes for short distances.

Even better, all 26 patients stopped using other immunotherapy drugs by their last checkup, which ranged from four to 12 months after treatment. They're managing without the medications they once depended on.

"I think it's a game changer," says Dr. Amanda Piquet, who led the stiff person syndrome study at the University of Colorado. She calls it a perfect opportunity for diseases that have few good treatment options.

A German team first pioneered autoimmune CAR T in 2021, treating a woman with lupus. Since then, hundreds of clinical trials have launched for conditions including MS, Graves' disease, and vasculitis.

Why This Inspires

Janisch-Hanzlik wasn't just thinking about herself when she signed up for the experimental treatment. Her two young grandchildren have an elevated risk of developing MS because of its genetic component.

"I would want to be able to say I did everything that I possibly could to prevent them, or anyone else, from having something like this," she says. Her courage in facing the unknown risks of a new therapy could pave the way for future generations.

The treatment essentially resets the immune system to a state before disease took hold. Instead of managing symptoms forever, patients might get their lives back with a single treatment.

For people with autoimmune diseases who've tried every medication without success, CAR T represents something they haven't had in years: genuine hope for a normal life.