Dr. Cowan on Efficacy and Safety of BCMA CAR T-Cells in Multiple Myeloma

Andrew J. Cowan, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at University of Washington School of Medicine, and hematologist/oncologist at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, discusses efficacy and safety of BCMA CAR T-cell therapy in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

A phase I study has treated a total of 7 patients thus far; these patients have been heavily pretreated with a median of 10 prior regimens. Approximately 75% of patients had a high-risk feature at the time of study entry. One patient died at day 33 post-CAR T-cell therapy due to cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and concurrent fungal infection, says Cowman. After that incident, the protocol was modified and no additional dose-limiting toxicities have been observed since then. The most common grade ≥3 adverse events observed with the treatment were neutropenic fever (70%), CRS (100%), and neurotoxicity (70%).

An 100% overall response rate was observed with the therapy with no relapses. The median follow-up is 20 weeks, but the patient currently with the longest- follow-up has shown no evidence of disease for ≥1 year, concludes Cowan. However, longer follow-up and of more patients are needed to determine if the durability of response is improved in patients treated with BCMA CAR T-cell therapy.