What Is the Role of Bispecific Antibody Therapies in Future Myeloma Care?
What Is the Role of Bispecific Antibody Therapies in Future Myeloma Care? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.
How does bispecific antibody therapy impact the outlook for myeloma care and treatment? Dr. Krina Patel discusses how this treatment, and CAR T-cell therapy, are revolutionizing myeloma care.
Dr. Krina Patel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Dr. Patel is involved in research and cares for patients with multiple myeloma. Learn more about Dr. Krina Patel.
Related Resources:
Transcript:
Katherine:
What role do you foresee bispecific antibody therapies playing the future of myeloma care?
Dr. Krina Patel:
So, I think bispecifics are phenomenal. I’m a CAR T girl, but in terms of access, I will say, that more of our patients around the world are going to have access to bispecifics.
And it’s off the shelf, so you don’t have to worry about taking cells out, making it, waiting and hoping to get those cells back. So, many more patients are going to be able to get it. And I think ideally if everybody could get a CAR T, my goal would be a CAR T first and then a bispecific until we can cure myeloma. Unfortunately, for the most part right now with these therapies, as single agents we haven’t seen that the majority of patients are cured.
So, my goal is to make sure that I have all the treatment options possible to keep patients doing well for as long as possible. And so, again, ideally CAR T, then maybe a bispecific because of the way those resistance mechanisms happen. But if we don’t have the availability of CAR T for everybody or you’re not eligible, I do think bispecifics are a great therapy. And I have again patients who are frail, who are older that we’ve been able to give bispecifics to and they’ve had amazing responses. And I think right now they’re single agents. But I do think that as we get these trials with combinations approved, we’ll see a lot more increase in use of those.
Again, the side effects are still something we’re learning about. So, bispecifics with BCMA, infections are a really big risk, even more than CAR T.
So, it’s really, really important that, if anyone has fevers or they don’t feel well, they see their doctor right way and make sure it’s not a strange infection that we don’t usually see that needs to be treated versus even a regular pneumonia that can be pretty dangerous when your immune system’s down.
So, that’s important. And then, the GPRC5D, as I said, it’s the taste and the weight loss and things like on skin that we really wanna make sure we do as much supportive care for that as possible.
