Groundbreaking cancer treatment is taking place at Albany Medical Center.

New York Oncology Hematology offering CAR-T therapy, which stands for chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy. This treatment uses the patient’s own immune cells to fight cancer by altering them to hunt and attack cancer cells.

Anyone who wanted the treatment before had to travel several hours to clinics in New York City, Boston or Buffalo.

The first patient to get the treatment at Albany, Dean Berhaupt, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2014. Being treated locally gives him a new sense of hope, he said.

“Any other place I went to have this would be traveling, staying in a hospital,” he said. “My wife happened to travel back and forth. Having it here in Albany, being local, meant a lot to me.”

Dean hopes the treatment helps his cancer go into remission, he said.