Terminal cancer patient denied life-extending treatment in Norway as son fights for new hope

A 48-year-old Oslo man with terminal blood cancer has been denied access to a potentially life-saving treatment available in neighbouring Nordic countries, leaving his family searching for alternatives as his condition worsens.

Russian-born IT entrepreneur Maxim Izergin was diagnosed with myelomatosis—a form of incurable blood cancer—in 2011. After years of treatment and multiple relapses, doctors informed him in March 2026 that his cancer had spread throughout his skeleton, giving him months to live without further intervention, Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet reports.

The only remaining option presented to Izergin was CAR-T cell therapy, an advanced immunotherapy that can extend survival by up to eight years. While Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and the UK offer this treatment with state funding, Norway’s Beslutningsforum for nye metoder (Decision Forum for New Methods)—the body determining which treatments public healthcare may use—has repeatedly rejected its approval, most recently in mid-March.

Forum leader Jan Frich told Dagbladet that while Norway seeks to introduce the therapy, the manufacturer’s proposed price remains “too high.” Negotiations are ongoing, but Frich noted that drug pricing agreements in other countries are not publicly disclosed at the industry’s request. He emphasised that evaluations follow parliamentary priorities: medical benefit, condition severity, and resource use.

Izergin, who moved to Norway in 2004 and later co-founded two IT companies, questioned the logic behind the rejection. “This was presented as the only treatment that could be effective,” he said. “The alternative might leave me permanently disabled. In that case, it’s actually cheaper to help me return to work than to let me become a lifelong cost to society.”

His 19-year-old son, Markus, has since taken up the fight, exploring alternative solutions to secure the treatment—though the family declined to share specifics with Dagbladet. “We’re not giving up,” Markus said.

Myelomatosis, also called multiple myeloma, is characterised by uncontrolled growth of plasma cells in bone marrow. Symptoms often include fatigue, bone pain, frequent infections, and anaemia. The disease rarely affects people under 40; the average diagnosis age in Norway is 68, with roughly eight to nine new cases per 100,000 people annually.

Norwegian cancer organisations have expressed disappointment over the repeated rejections of CAR-T therapy for myelomatosis patients. The country currently offers alternative treatments not available in Denmark, according to Frich.