Dr. Shah on Novel Antibodies for Patients With Myeloma

Nina Shah, MD, associate professor, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center, classifies two antibody-type treatments for patients with myeloma.

Shah distinguishes between antibody-drug conjugates and bispecific therapies. Though both therapies target specific myeloma cells—in which a toxic drug linked to a specific antibody is carried to the corresponding myeloma cell—antibodies in bispecific therapies are also coded to their T cells. This approach uses the patient’s own T cells and antibodies with the intent of killing the myeloma cell and potentially even having some T-cell membrane, which is one of the goals of that therapy.

As advances continue to be made in this landscape, clinical trials will soon determine where to sequence these drugs and whether or not they can be administered earlier.