Dr. Avigan on BCMA-Targeted CAR T-Cell Therapy in Multiple Myeloma

David E. Avigan, MD, professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, and active staff, Hematology-Oncology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, discusses BCMA-targeted CAR T-cell therapies in multiple myeloma.

BCMA-targeted CAR T-cell therapy is a potent treatment strategy that provides another line of therapy to heavily pretreated patients, says Avigan. However, one has to be aware of the potential treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs), such as neurotoxicity and cytokine release syndrome. Generally, the TRAEs are manageable, but patients have to be monitored closely, nonetheless.

Although the modality has demonstrated high objective response rates in this patient population, they tend to drop off after the first year of treatment, explains Avigan. As such, there is a lot of ongoing work aimed at addressing patterns of resistance to CAR T-cell therapy in an attempt to improve upon T-cell persistence.