How is research helping to improve myeloma CAR T-cell therapy? Dr. Rebecca Silbermann, a myeloma expert and researcher, discusses advances in the field and how ongoing research could shape the future of CAR T-cell therapy and myeloma care.
Dr. Rebecca Silbermann is an Associate Professor of Medicine and the Clinical and Research Head of the Multiple Myeloma Program at Oregon Health & Science University. Learn more about Dr. Silbermann.
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Transcript
Katherine Banwell:
Dr. Silbermann, what’s the latest research in CAR T-cell therapy? What recent advances should patients be aware of?
Dr. Rebecca Silbermann:
There’s a lot of cool stuff. There are newer CAR T products that are in later phase testing, which look like they might have better safety profiles, reduced late toxicities, in particular. We’re very interested, as a community, to see how the latest data looks for those products, and to see what happens with potential FDA approvals for those products.
There are different types of products that are constructed differently, that will hopefully be very, very effective for patients. And there’s a lot of really interesting stuff coming up to look at even earlier use of CAR T, perhaps in the newly diagnosed and in the smoldering myeloma settings. I think that CAR T is a tool, and we are getting better at using the tool.
We’re understanding the limits of the tool more and more, as more and more patients choose this method of treatment, and all of this data is helping the whole field.
Katherine Banwell:
Dr. Silbermann, what gives you hope when you think about the future of CAR T-cell therapy for people living with myeloma?
Dr. Rebecca Silbermann:
I really am impressed by all of the patients who have been able to define their new normal, and to live with it. And to build this resilience where they recognize that they’re going to be living with myeloma for probably a very long time, and they take on each new challenge as it comes. They’ve figured out their ways of coping with the information. They figured out who their people are, and how they’re going to think through the potential next steps.
And when they are able to put together questions, they come to me with really good questions about what to expect, what to think about, and how the next period of time is going to look. I want my patients to ask me, when they come back to me from CAR T, how often are we going to be checking my myeloma labs? When are we next going to be looking at imaging, looking in the bone marrow?
And I try to ask them what they’re comfortable with, too. It can be really hard to go from the cadence of getting your labs every month to spreading them out. And it feels, sometimes, like a loss for the patient, to suddenly not be coming into the clinic so often. And that’s something that we talk through, and that we try to make everybody feel pretty comfortable with.