Updates in CAR T-Cell Therapy for Myeloma From ASH 2021
Updates in CAR T-Cell Therapy for Myeloma from ASH 2021 from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.
Myeloma specialist, Dr. Omar Nadeem, shares the latest updates in CAR T-cell therapy from the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting. Dr. Nadeem discusses long-term study results and optimism for the future of CAR T-cell therapy.
Dr. Omar Nadeem is the Clinical Director of Myeloma Cellular Therapies Program and Director of Myeloma and Plasma Cell Pathways at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Learn more about Dr. Nadeem, here.
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Transcript:
Dr. Nadeem:
My name is Omar Nadeem, and I’m at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. I’m an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and I direct the myeloma cellular therapies program at Dana Farber.
Katherine:
Dr. Nadeem, you’ve joined us from the American Society of Hematology Meeting in Atlanta. Can you share any highlights in myeloma from the meeting?
Dr. Nadeem:
Yeah, it’s a very exciting time in myeloma therapeutics. We’re seeing a lot of new agents that are being reported at this meeting, showing very promising results.
Then we’re also fine tuning the way we treat myeloma patients by looking at different combinations in all lines of therapy, whether it be front-line or relapsed setting, to try to really understand which treatments are the best and then also more importantly, which treatments do we need to continue patients on, etcetera as they’re going through their myeloma journey. So, lots of updates with important trials at this meeting so far.
Katherine:
We’re hearing a lot about the promise of CAR T-cell therapy. Is there any research news in CAR T-cell for myeloma treatment?
Dr. Nadeem:
Yeah. So, we’ll have a presentation later today, actually, updated results of the CARTITUDE-1 study, which is looking at cilta-cel, which is an anti-BCMA directed CAR-T cell product.
And this trial is a phase-1/2 study looking at some patients with relapse in refractory multiple myeloma that has been reported previously to have a very, very high response rate and very high rates of MRD negativity.
So at this meeting, with just longer follow-up, which is what we’re looking for in terms of how long these responses last, we’re starting to see that the median duration of response is now almost 22 months, which is very impressive looking at the data and comparing it to some of the other CAR-T products that are either under study or the one that’s currently approved.
So, that looks very promising. And also notably, we had some concerns initially about toxicity with this particular product. But that really hasn’t been seen with longer follow-up. So, we’re not seeing a toxicity signal, particularly as it relates to neurological toxicity, with the longer follow-up. So, that presentation will be later today. We look forward to seeing the updates, but so far this looks very encouraging and this is what we anticipate to be the next product that’s available in the market for myeloma.