Dr. Smith on Immunotherapy Potential in Multiple Myeloma

Eric Smith, MD, PhD, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the potential of immunotherapy in the treatment landscape of multiple myeloma.

Smith sees a huge role for immunotherapy in the field. Although the disease is still considered incurable, immunotherapy is a hopeful way to shift that paradigm and get durable responses—or even cures—in patients. Additionally, he says, monoclonal antibodies such as upfront daratumumab (Darzalex) could have the same impact as rituximab (Rituxan) has had in non-Hodgkin lymphoma. There is also room for checkpoint blockades and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in frontline and later-lines of therapy. CAR T-cell therapy could replace high-dose melphalan (Alkeran) in stem cell rescue in the future, he adds.

It is important for community oncologists to know that there are many therapeutic options available, especially for relapsed/refractory patients, but they should also consider referring patients to clinical trials that are exploring checkpoint blockades or cellular therapies.