Dr. Davies on the Next Steps for CAR T-Cell Therapy in Relapsed/Refractory Myeloma

Faith E. Davies, MD, a professor in the Department of Medicine, and director of the Clinical Myeloma Program at NYU Langone Health’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, discusses the next steps for CAR T-cell therapy in the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. 

Currently, most of the studies examining this modality have been performed in patients with relapsed/refractory disease, Davies says. In the past, this patient population was not expected to respond or experience a long remission with this approach, data from these studies have shown high response rates, according to Davies. Additionally, a large number of patients achieve minimal residual disease negativity and a prolonged disease-free period, Davies adds.

Despite the number of adverse effects associated with CAR T-cell therapy, which need to be managed, the modality shows a lot of promise, Davies says. The potential next steps for this treatment may be to evaluate its use earlier on in the disease course. Due to the high response rates seen in heavily pretreated patients, it is feasible that this approach could be highly beneficial in those with earlier stages of disease, Davies explains.

To this end, many of the ongoing clinical studies are examining CAR T-cell therapy in earlier lines of treatment or looking at its use in high-risk patients who may be in need of first-line therapy, Davies concludes.