Multiple myeloma, anticipate cell therapy works

Multiple myeloma, anticipate cell therapy works

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Car-T therapy has radically changed the outlook for some serious blood cancer patients. A small slice of patients, to tell the truth. The CAR-T are approved for patients who have already undergone many treatments and despite this have a recurrence, but who are also in relatively good condition, because it is a demanding treatment. This is why it is important to understand whether the therapy can be anticipated, using it as early as the first time the disease returns. The results of the Cartitude-4 study, presented at the just concluded American Congress of Medical Oncology (Asco) in Chicago, tell us yes. Specifically, they show that in adult patients with multiple myeloma who have received even one prior therapy, ciltacabtagene autoleucel (cilta-cel) reduces the risk of disease progression or death by 74 percent compared with the two standard treatment regimens.

“The results of this study are very encouraging as they show a significant improvement in progression-free survival and response rates, as well as a reduced risk of death, with cilta-cel treatment compared to existing standard therapies. These data confirm the potential of this cell therapy to become a key therapeutic option for multiple myeloma patients in increasingly earlier lines of treatment, where the need for new therapies remains unmet,” says Professor Jesús San Miguel†, Director of Clinical & Translational Medicine, Universidad de Navarra, Spain.

Multiple myeloma, we need a registry that takes into account all patients

by Letizia Gabaglio


Multiple myeloma

Multiple myeloma is a blood cancer characterized by the uncontrolled mutation and multiplication of a specific type of white blood cell, the plasma cell, found in the bone marrow. While some patients with multiple myeloma have no initial symptoms, most are diagnosed precisely because of symptoms, which can include fractures or bone pain, low red blood cells, tiredness, increased calcium levels, or kidney failure.

Multiple myeloma, an innovative therapy for the most difficult cases

by Letizia Gabaglio



The security

Car-T therapy uses the T cells of the patient’s immune system to mount an attack on the diseased cells. It is developed from patient cells that are taken, taken to the laboratory where they are modified to recognize and attack diseased cells, and then re-infused into the patient. A complex and demanding therapy, also due to the side effects: 97 and 94 percent of patients reported, respectively in the group treated with Car-T and in the group with standard therapy, grade 3 and 4 adverse events, including infections and cytopenia. Among patients receiving cilta-cel, 76% reported cytokine release syndrome, mostly mild, 5% reported Car-T mediated neurotoxicity, and 1 patient experienced a motor-related adverse event and neurocogitive derived from the treatment. Overall, 39 patients in the cilta-cel arm and 46 in the standard care arm died; of these deaths, ten and five in the two treatment groups, respectively, were caused by treatment-emergent adverse events.

Multiple myeloma: how the two new experimental treatments work

by Sandro Iannaccone



The new indication

The Cartitude-4 study is the first randomized study of the efficacy of a cell therapy for the treatment of multiple myeloma starting with the first relapse. Based on the results presented in Chicago – published simultaneously in The New England Journal of Medicine and the subject of a plenary session during the Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA), which will be held from 8 to 11 June in Frankfurt – it was Application to the European Medicines Agency for authorization of a new indication of cilta-cel for the treatment of patients with relapsed and lenalidomide-refractory multiple myeloma who have previously received one to three lines of treatment.

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