Thomas Martin, MD, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses how positive data reflecting the safety and efficacy of CAR T cell therapy to treat multiple myeloma may lead to expanded use of this group of therapies.
One example demonstrating the safety and efficacy of CAR T cell therapy is the CARTITUDE-1 study, which is an ongoing Phase 1b/2, open-label, multi-center study evaluating the safety and efficacy of cilta-cel in adults with relapsed and/or refractory multiple myeloma. Patients in this study received a single cilta-cel infusion 5–7 days after lymphodepletion. 12-month follow-up data was presented at the American Society of Hematology Meeting & Exposition (ASH 2021). More recently, additional follow-up data was presented at ASH 2021, when the median length of follow-up was 18 months. This 2-year follow-up data demonstrated that in the 97 patients reported on, the overall response rate was 98% and the stringent complete response was 83% (compared to 67% at 12-month follow-up). The median progression-free survival was not estimable.
As Dr. Martin explains, this data – along with other data presented at ASH 2021 where cilta-cel was given to patients after 1-3 prior lines of therapy – gives hope that CAR T cell therapies may be used as an earlier line of therapy. Additionally, cilta-cell is involved in studies as part of consolidation therapies as front-line therapies for multiple myeloma. Moreover, there is hope that the use of CAR T cell therapy will eventually expand to diseases beyond multiple myeloma.
To learn more about multiple myeloma, visit our Multiple Myeloma Learning Page.