Researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and Mount Sinai have uncovered treatments that can assist patients with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer, who have tried the immunotherapy CAR-T but have experienced relapsed blood cancer.
Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, or CAR-T for short, uses immune cells called T cells to treat multiple myeloma by modifying them in the lab to enable them to recognize and eradicate cancer cells. Although a groundbreaking therapy for this fatal malignancy, some patients who undergo CAR-T therapy relapse and are left with no other viable options for treatment.
Researchers looked at a sizable sample of multiple myeloma patients who had received BCMA-directed CAR-T cell treatment and relapsed blood cancer after receiving it in a new study that was published in the journal Blood in November. In order to treat multiple myeloma, this variation of CAR-T cell therapy specifically targets the BCMA protein on malignant plasma cells.
The researchers discovered that alternative T-cell therapies, such as bispecific antibodies and various forms of CAR-T cell therapy, appear to have the most pronounced effectiveness in permanently eradicating the disease in these relapsed patients.
The director of translational research in multiple myeloma and co-leader of the Cancer Clinical Investigation program at the Tisch Cancer Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Dr. Samir Parekh, a senior author on the study, said that the results “will serve as a benchmark for future prospective clinical studies that intend to improve the outcomes of patients who progress after CAR-T.” “The results of several therapeutic alternatives offered to a sizable cohort of patients who relapsed following anti-BCMA CAR-T therapy are being reported in this study for the first time.” “The hematology community is really interested in this because it is one of the most pressing unmet needs in myeloma patients.”
This retrospective study examined the illness features, post-relapse medications, and therapeutic responses of 79 patients. The median overall survival of patients is currently around 18 months.
In these patients, stem cell transplantation had some success as well. Based on the features of each patient’s cancer, different drug combinations may also be administered with varying degrees of success, the study discovered.
The Tisch Cancer Institute and MSK provided care for the patients.
Sham Mailankody, MBBS, MSK, and senior author on the article, said, “We’re delighted that subsequent use of additional innovative immune therapies like a second CAR-T cell therapy or a bispecific antibody was feasible and resulted in sustained responses in patients.” We look forward to advancing this research and realizing the full promise of immunotherapies for multiple myeloma patients.
