New Avenues of Research for Ide-Cel in Multiple Myeloma: Adam Sperling, MD, PhD

This content originally appeared on our sister site, OncLive.

CAR T-cell therapies such as idecabtagene vicleucel (ide-cel; Abecma) and ciltacabtagene autoleucel are being examined as both second and early lines of therapies.

OncLive spoke with Adam Sperling, MD, PhD, a physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School, about future research with ide-cel for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma.

Sperling discussed ongoing studies of CAR T-cell therapies as early line treatments being done in patients who have relapsed quickly after their first-line therapy, Sperling notes. These patients are high risk, and are often primary refractory to their first line of therapy or have relapsed within 6 months to 1 year of undergoing autologous stem cell transplantation, Sperling explains. Currently, not enough data exist to determine whether the durability of response will be better if this modality is utilized in earlier lines, but more information is anticipated, Sperling says.

Additionally, patients who have been treated with ide-cel did not receive any other therapy, which differs from how patients with multiple myeloma are generally treated, Sperling adds; they did not receive continuous treatment or maintenance therapy. However, ongoing trials are examining whether the durability of responses achieved with this approach can be improved if other therapies are given after CAR T-cell therapy, or in combination with this modality, Sperling concludes.