Lee May, a resident of Santa Cruz, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma 14 years ago after experiencing bone pain and fatigue during a bicycle ride. Initial tests at UCSF Health confirmed the presence of the aggressive blood cancer, which is known for being difficult to treat and likely to return.
May recalls his experience upon receiving the diagnosis: “I knew it was going to be bad, but I didn’t know what it was.” Doctors initially gave him a prognosis of two to four years.
Over the past decade, May has undergone several treatments, including drug combinations, a stem cell transplant, and CAR-T therapy. He credits ongoing research for his survival. “Every time I relapsed, there would be a new course of therapy, a new drug would be available,” he says. “My survival relates directly to NIH (National Institutes of Health) research and funding. If it hadn’t been for that, I wouldn’t be here. Science moves forward with NIH funding.”
Jeffrey Wolf, M.D., a hematologist and oncologist at UCSF specializing in blood and bone marrow cancers, has treated May throughout his illness. Along with Thomas Martin, M.D., Wolf established the UCSF Multiple Myeloma Program.
Wolf described the long-term challenge of treating multiple myeloma: “For decades, I thought we would never make progress,” he says. “It took a long time to get a handle on this disease. But what we are doing now has grown out of all our laboratory and clinical work.”
May’s initial treatment in 2012 involved an RVD drug cocktail (lenalidomide, bortezomib, and dexamethasone), followed by a stem cell transplant later that year. Although doctors hoped this would provide five years without relapse, his remission lasted two and a half years.
After several more years on various drug regimens to manage the disease, May relapsed again in 2023 and received CAR-T therapy—specifically ciltacabtagene autoleucel—which had been approved by the FDA in 2022 for adults whose multiple myeloma had returned or not responded to other treatments.
CAR-T therapy involves modifying patients’ immune cells so they can better target cancer cells. May describes his experience: “This is really cutting-edge stuff,” he says. “The shot is one and done which is so wonderful. You can’t talk to a cancer patient who doesn’t want a break from treatment.”
At the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting in June 2025, researchers reported that about one-third of patients treated with this single-infusion therapy were alive without further progression or additional treatment five or more years later.
Wolf noted these results as significant progress against an illness once considered almost uniformly fatal: “It’s incredible that we are now able to cure diseases that we could never cure before,” he says. “This is the future: to cure cancer with a single shot. None of this could have been developed without NIH support all these years.”
Now 74 years old and in remission since receiving CAR-T therapy at UCSF Helen Diller Medical Center at Parnassus Heights, May leads an active life as head of the local multiple myeloma support group while enjoying gardening and cycling.
Reflecting on his journey through diagnosis and treatment—and looking toward whatever comes next—May states: “I’m still here,” he says. “I feel very lucky. I never thought I’d live to see my kids get married or see my grandchildren. However long this lasts, I’ll take it.”
