Anti-BCMA CAR T-Cell Therapy for Multiple Myeloma
Posted: Thursday, September 7, 2017
Updated study results of bb2121, an anti-BCMA (B-cell maturation antigen) chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, demonstrate its potential as a treatment regimen for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, with a 100% overall response rate in the 6 patients evaluated thus far. The researchers seek to create an effective CAR construct that targets BCMA to redirect T cells to multiple myeloma. Jesus G. Berdeja, MD, of Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Nashville, presented the results of this first-in-human phase I clinical study at the 2017 American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting (Abstract 3010).
Patients for the multicenter dose-escalation trial included those who received ≥ 3 prior regimens, including a proteasome inhibitor and an immunomodulatory agent, or are double-refractory and have ≥ 50% BCMA expression on plasma cells. Participants received lymphodepletion with fludarabine (30 mg/m2)/cyclophosphamide (300 mg/m2) for 3 days and then a single infusion of bb2121.
Adverse events greater than grade 2, including neurotoxicity or cytokine-release syndrome, were not observed in patients as of the study cutoff date. A total of 73% of treated patients reported grade 1/2 cytokine-release syndrome.
“Once we get to 150 million cells, which we know is therapeutic, there’s a 100% response rate, a 73% rate of very good partial responses or better, and a 27% complete response rate,” Dr. Berdeja commented in a recent interview with The ASCO Post.
