Dr Pan on the Novel Therapy Anito-Cel in Relapsed/Refractory Myeloma

“At EHA, the one [abstract] that was the most exciting, parallel with cilta-cel was the iMMagine-1 trial. There’s been a lot of buzz about anito-cel, which had a high bar to clear than cilta-cel.”

Darren Pan, MD, an assistant professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, highlighted the novelty of anitocabtagene autoleucel (anito-cel; CART-ddBCMA) for the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

Data from the phase 2 iMMagine-1 trial (NCT05396885) revealed that in 117 patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, the overall response rate was 97%, which included a stringent complete response (sCR)/CR rate of 68%. Of note, 93% (n = 70/75) were negative for minimal residual disease at a minimum sensitivity of 10^-5. Furthermore, the 6- and 12-month progression-free survival rates were 91.9% (95% CI, 85.0%-95.7%) and 79.3% (95% CI, 68.6%-86.7%), respectively. Additionally, the respective overall survival rates at 6 and 12 months were 96.6% (95% CI, 91.1%-98.7%) and 95.2% (95% CI, 88.7%-98.0%), respectively.

A parallel to ciltacabtagene autoleucel (cilta-cel; Carvykti), of which long-term follow-up is notably being evaluated in the phase 1b/2 CARTITUDE-1 trial (NCT03548207), anito-cel has garnered attention in the multiple myeloma landscape, Pan began. He noted that cilta-cel has gained traction in the space and has set a high bar for other CAR T-cell therapies, including anito-cel, following its established efficacy and safety data.

However, anito-cel has also grabbed some attention, especially after updated data were presented at the 2025 European Hematology Association Congress, Pan said. Although the follow-up for anito-cel is early compared with cilta-cel, he emphasized that anito-cel has demonstrated similar efficacy to cilta-cel and with a significant difference in terms of safety profile. In particular, with longer follow-up, delayed neurotoxicities have not been observed at a high rate compared with cilta-cel, he noted. Even common adverse effects (AE), such as cranial nerve palsies, were not reported in patients treated with anito-cel, Pan asserted. Notably, signs of Parkinsonism have not been observed, which has been acknowledged as a rare AE associated with cilta-cel infusion, he said. Still, there could be chances of later-onset toxicities as more patients begin to receive anito-cel, Pan concluded.