Larry Anderson, MD, PhD, Discussed Updated Results of the KarMMa Trial at ASCO

At the 2021 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, CancerNetwork® spoke with Larry Anderson, MD, PhD, of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, about updated findings from the pivotal phase 2 KarMMa trial (NCT03361748) of the B-cell maturation antigen–directed chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy idecabtagene vicleucel (ide-cel; Abecma) in the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

In heavily pretreated patients, Anderson said responses to ide-cel were unparalleled and treatment with this therapy offers hope to those who have few available options.

Transcript:

The key takeaway from this trial is that we’re seeing unprecedented responses in this heavily refractory group of patients. It basically gives us hope that we can use these therapies for patients who really had little hope before. We’re seeing really deep and potentially durable remissions. Basically, we have options now for patients who didn’t really have options before.

But another takeaway is that even though [about] 41% of the patients achieved complete response and are still in remission 2 years out, and we still have some patients in complete remission 3 years out, most of these patients do relapse within a couple of years. It’s not necessarily a cure-all [treatment]. We’re really hoping that further modifications that we mentioned using these [cellular therapies] earlier will be even more efficacious. But certainly for now, it’s great to have an option for these patients who have already failed all the standard options.

References

Anderson LD, Munshi NC, Shah N, et al. Idecabtagene vicleucel (ide-cel, bb2121), a BCMA-directed CAR T cell therapy, in relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma: Updated KarMMa results. J Clin Oncol. 2021;39(suppl 15):8016. doi:10.1200/JCO.2021.39.15_suppl.8016