For 69-year-old Dave Pipe from Christchurch, New Zealand, Bengaluru became the city of hope after years of battling multiple myeloma. Having undergone 20 cycles of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant in 2023, his remission lasted barely 14 months. By early 2025, the cancer had returned, and further treatment options failed. “By May, doctors told me I had reached the end of the road,” Pipe recalled.
It was then that a newspaper article changed his life. The report highlighted a fellow New Zealander who underwent CAR T-cell therapy in Bengaluru and achieved remission. The treatment, where a patient’s own T-cells are genetically modified and reintroduced to fight cancer, felt like Pipe’s last chance.
“In New Zealand, doctors cannot recommend treatments outside the country because care is state-funded. Reading about a professor who recovered after CAR T in Bengaluru convinced me,” he said. Soon after, Pipe contacted Dr Prasad Narayanan, senior consultant and director of oncology at Cytecare Hospitals, Yelahanka.
Following initial chemotherapy and the final CAR T infusion, Pipe humorously described the moment: “It was an anticlimax. Doctors asked how I felt, and I simply stared at the nine faces around me. I just felt bored,” he laughed, expressing gratitude to Bengaluru’s specialists.
Bengaluru is fast emerging as a hub for advanced medical treatments. In the last three years, 93 international patients have undergone robotic cardiac surgeries at Sakra World Hospital, with recovery times nearly three times faster than conventional open-heart procedures.