Dr. Voorhees on the Role of CAR T-Cell Therapy in Multiple Myeloma

Peter Voorhees, MD, physician, Levine Cancer Institute, Atrium Health, discusses the role of CAR T-cell therapy in multiple myeloma.

BCMA-targeted CAR T-cell therapies have shown unprecedented response rates and depth of response in patients with heavily pretreated relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, says Voorhees.

Unlike B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, CAR T-cell therapy has not shown curative potential in multiple myeloma, says Voorhees.

The investigational CAR T-cell therapy, bb2121 (idecabtagene vicleucel), demonstrated a median progression-free survival (PFS) of 11.8 months (95% CI, 6.2-17.8) in patients with heavily pretreated relapsed/refractory disease in the phase I CRB-401 study (NCT02658929). Though patients will progress on this treatment, 1-year PFS in this setting is highly encouraging, explains Voorhees.

Moving CAR T-cell therapy into earlier lines of treatment may elicit more durable responses, says Voorhees. Additionally, CAR T-cell therapy may have the potential to overcome high-risk disease in patients who do not respond well to initial therapy, or in those who relapse after frontline treatment, concludes Voorhees.