Dr. Shah on the Current State of Cellular Therapy in Multiple Myeloma

Nina Shah, MD, a hematologist, oncologist, associate professor of medicine, Department of Medicine, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the current state of cellular therapy in multiple myeloma.

Cellular therapy has expanded in multiple myeloma with the integration of multiple agents, including autologous BCMA-directed CAR T-cell therapies, Shah explains. Data with the FDA-approved product idecabtagene vicleucel (Abecma) showed that one dose of therapy can induce long remissions in patients with heavily pretreated disease. Additionally, ciltacabtagene autoleucel was granted priority review designation by the FDA for the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. 

However, a shortcoming of CAR T-cell therapy in multiple myeloma is that there is not yet a plateau on the survival curves, which means that the disease remains incurable, Shah continues. Although patients may derive a treatment-free interval of 1 year, they will eventually progress and require additional therapy. As such, novel cellular therapies are needed to improve the durability, accessibility, and persistence of T-cells for patients, Shah concludes.