It was nearly two years ago when an oncologist first told Jas Velic that his best hope of surviving aggressive blood cancer was CAR-T therapy, a cutting-edge treatment that would genetically alter some of his own white blood cells to attack his cancer.

Unlike the punishing regimen of weekly chemotherapy keeping the 43-year-old father of two alive, CAR-T therapy is given as a single infusion.

It also appears to be better than other drugs at controlling multiple myeloma, the type of cancer Mr. Velic has. The latest clinical trial results, reported in June, showed that a third of patients facing certain death from advanced myeloma were free of detectable cancer five years after receiving CAR-T therapy, a stunning result for a disease considered incurable.

In theory, CAR-T could have been available in Canada by the time Mr. Velic and his oncologist, Keith Stewart, the director of the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, first discussed it in December of 2023.