Dr. Kansagra on Updates With CAR T-cell Therapy in Myeloma

Ankit Kansagra, MD, assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center of UT Southwestern Medical Center, discusses updates with CAR T-cell therapy in multiple myeloma.

The phase Ib/II CARTITUDE-1 trial sought to characterize the safety of JNJ-4528 and establish the recommended dosage. Results showed that the BCMA-directed CAR T-cell therapy achieved a 100% overall response rate (ORR) with early and deep responses in 29 patients with heavily pretreated relapsed/refractory myeloma at a median follow-up of 6 months. The ORR consisted of a 66% stringent complete response (CR) rate, a 3% CR rate, a 17% very good partial response (PR) rate, and a 14% PR rate.

Data have also been reported with the CAR T-cell therapy idecabtagene vicleucel (ide-cel; bb2121), which is, to some extent, a similar product. However, ide-cel has the potential to be given in an outpatient setting, depending on the cytokine release or the toxicity that occurred.

Moreover, even with a lower dose, good efficacy is being reported with this therapy, says Kansangra. It is difficult to compare 2 different products, but investigators are seeing how this construct was made and they might be able to achieve very good efficacy as it is examined further in trials, concludes Kansagra.