Dr. Shah on Unmet Needs With CAR T-Cell Therapy in Multiple Myeloma

Nina Shah, MD, a hematologist and oncologist, and an associate professor of medicine, Department of Medicine, at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses unmet needs with CAR T-cell therapy in multiple myeloma.

Although CAR T-cell therapy has been a welcome addition to the multiple myeloma landscape, the treatment isn’t curing patients and no plateau has been seen on the survival curves, Shah says. As such, innovative ways to prolong the efficacy of CAR T-cell therapy are under way.

Unique culturing techniques, such as those utilized with the investigational bb21217 product, are being evaluated. Additionally, engineering techniques aimed at increasing the T-stem cell–like memory phenotype are being studied with the P-BCMA-101 product. Finally, allogenic CAR T-cell therapies, such as those being developed by Allogene Therapeutics, have the potential to increase accessibility to CAR T-cell therapy in multiple myeloma, Shah explains.

Ultimately, refining the culturing, engineering, and manufacturing process of CAR T-cell therapy may improve the success of this therapeutic modality and provide prolonged responses to patients with multiple myeloma, Shah concludes.