Dr. Shah on the Clinical Significance of Ide-Cel in Myeloma

Nina Shah, MD, a hematologist and oncologist, and an associate professor of medicine, Department of Medicine, at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the clinical significance of idecabtagene vicleucel (ide-cel; Abecma) for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma.

Ide-cel was approved by the FDA in March 2021 for patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma based on the results of the phase 2 KarMMa study (NCT03361748), according to Shah. In this study, 128 patients with relapsed/refractory disease received an infusion of ide-cel. The patient population was heavily pretreated, having received a median of 6 prior lines of therapy, Shah says.

Over 70% of patients responded to treatment, which is significant when considering that this is a patient population of advanced disease, Shah explains. With the dose of 450 × 10⁶ CAR-positive T cells, which is the standard dose from the FDA label, patients achieved a response rate of over 80% and a median progression-free survival of 11.3 months. Such strong data had yet to be seen for patients relapsed/refractory myeloma until the KarMMa study, which ultimately led to the regulatory decision to approve the product for patients with advanced disease, Shah concluded.