What ASH abstracts stood out to you most in multiple myeloma?
By Lisa X. Lee, MD from UCI Health
At ASH this year, it was all about immunotherapy for multiple myeloma. This year’s ASH came on the heels of two major approvals for BCMA directed CAR T, as well as our first approved BCMA bispecific. And I think, the question for people who treat myeloma is how can we improve upon these approved therapies? There were a lot of exciting abstracts and oral presentations on optimizing T-cell therapy, the cellular product itself. There are also interesting presentations on the sequencing of the available BCMA directed therapies.
Of course BCMA is not the end all, be all, one of the most attended myeloma sessions was an oral presentation of the MonumenTAL-1 study which is a presentation of the phase 2 results of Talquetamab, which is the glycoprotein receptor CD5 D antigen on myeloma cells, and that those results are quite promising. It gives us a non-BCMA option for patients who relapse after BCMA directed therapy, and that was very encouraging.
What excited you most about these studies? Did anything stand out?
I think one of the first slides that I showed is from a study that looked at the expected outcomes with the standard of care for heavily treated relapse-refractory patients. And we’re looking at overall response rates in the 20–30% range with a progression-free survival of less than half a year. Therefore, the exciting thing to me is that we’re getting response rates of, 60 to 90% with these new therapies, which means progressi-n free survival. We’re pushing the envelope with regards to progression-free survival, and possibly overall survival, and that is really exciting to me.
Where do you see this research for the MonumenTAL-1 study going in the future?
I think the next areas of research should be about how to select how to sequence the available therapies that we have and also how to optimize the cellular products itself for more robust for more robust outcomes.
Lisa X. Lee, MD – About The Author, Credentials, and Affiliations
Lisa X. Lee, MD, is an oncologist and assistant professor at the — Division of Hematology-Oncology, Department of Medicine, UCI School of Medicine in Orange, California.
Dr. Lisa X. Lee She graduated from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School with a medical degree and has been in practice for 11 to 20 years.