Future Research With NK and CAR T Therapy in Multiple Myeloma: Irene Ghobrial, MD

Video

The director at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute discussed future efforts to prevent the development of multiple myeloma.

This content originally appeared on our sister site, OncLive.

OncLive spoke with Irene Ghobrial, MD, director, Clinical Investigator Research Program, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Lavine Family Chair for Preventative Cancer Therapies, and professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, to learn more about future efforts to prevent the development of multiple myeloma.

Initiating immunotherapy earlier in the treatment journey may be a focus of future research efforts in this disease. Immunotherapy may even be introduced as early as smoldering myeloma, when the immune system is stronger and tumor burden is lower. Ghobrial explained that the goal is to harness the immune system to eliminate myeloma without the need for conventional therapy.

Other efforts are being focused on precision interception in smoldering myeloma, such as giving patients venetoclax (Venclexta) if they have a t(11;14) translocation, Ghobrial explains. Certain biomarkers can indicate which form of immunotherapy is optimal for each patient; these approaches can include bispecific antibodies, CAR T-cell therapy, or natural killer cell therapies, Ghobrial says.

Those who have high-risk smoldering myeloma should not just be treated with 1 approach, Ghobrial adds. The future should consist of stronger risk stratification, a better understanding of who will progress to multiple myeloma, and more insight on how to effectively leverage immune or genomic biomarkers to inform the appropriate therapeutic intervention for these patients, Ghobrial concludes.

Newsletter

Stay at the forefront of cutting-edge science with CGT—your direct line to expert insights, breakthrough data, and real-time coverage of the latest advancements in cell and gene therapy.

Recent Videos
Derek Jackson, BS, MA, the vice president of cell & gene therapy product development at Pacira, and Kilian Guse, PhD, the vice president of genetic medicine platforms at Pacira
Derek Jackson, BS, MA, the vice president of cell & gene therapy product development at Pacira
Jeffrey Chamberlain, PhD
Tami John, MD
Tami John, MD
Tami John, MD
Matthew Ku, MBBS, FRACP, RACP, FRCPA/RCPA, PhD, an associate professor and the lymphoma stream lead at St Vincent’s Hospital
Saurabh Dahiya, MD, FACP, an associate professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine; as well as clinical director of Cancer Cell Therapy in the Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cell Therapy at Stanford Medicine
Shahzad Raza, MD, a hematologist/oncologist at the Cleveland Clinic
Manali Kamdar, MD, the associate professor of medicine–hematology and clinical director of lymphoma services at the University of Colorado
Related Content
© 2025 MJH Life Sciences

All rights reserved.