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Shaji K. Kumar, MD
Prashant Kapoor, MD, FACP
Shaji K. Kumar, MD
Prashant Kapoor, MD, FACP
Posted: Wednesday, August 31, 2022
Many patients with multiple myeloma eventually become resistant to treatment and develop relapsed or refractory disease. Consequently, there is a real need for new therapies with novel mechanisms of action. LCAR-B38M is one such novel therapy. A chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell product with specificity for B-cell maturation antigen, LCAR-B38M has shown activity in the phase I LEGEND-2 trial in China.
Researcher Wan-Hong Zhao, MD, PhD, of The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, and colleagues previously reported 2-year follow-up data from the LEGEND-2 trial of LCAR-B38M in patients with relapsed refractory multiple myeloma. In the Journal of Hematology & Oncology, the investigators now have reported safety and efficacy data from LEGEND-2 after a median follow-up of 4 years.
During LEGEND-2, 74 patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma received LCAR-B38M treatment. At a median follow-up of 47.8 months, the overall response was of 87.8%, with 54 of 74 patients (73.0%) achieving a complete response. The median progression-free survival for these patients was 18 months, and overall survival was not reached.
In addition to these data on efficacy, LCAR-B38M showed a manageable safety profile, according to the study authors. All patients experienced at least grade 1 adverse events, with 45 of 74 patients (60.8%) experiencing grade 3 or higher adverse events. Although cytokine-release syndrome was reported in most patients (92%), 66 of 68 patients recovered after administration of anti–interleukin-6R.
These data reportedly represent the longest follow-up to date of any CAR T-cell therapy in patients with multiple myeloma. “The key findings in the LEGEND-2 trial are largely consistent with the results generated in the CARTITUDE-1 study, despite population differences between the two studies,” the authors commented. The CAR T-cell therapy used in the CARTITUDE-1 trial was ciltacabtagene autoleucel, which uses an identical construct to LCAR-B38M, according to the authors from China.
Disclosure: One author is an employee of Legend Biotech. The other authors reported no conflicts of interest.
Journal of Hematology & Oncology
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