Therapies identified for patients whose blood cancer relapses after CAR-T

CAR-T, short for chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, enlists immune cells called T cells to fight multiple myeloma by altering them in the lab so they can find and destroy cancer cells. It has been a revolutionary treatment for this deadly cancer, but some patients relapse after receiving CAR-T therapy and have no good treatment options afterward.

Mount Sinai and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) researchers have identified therapies that can help patients with the blood cancer multiple myeloma who try an immunotherapy known as CAR-T only to find their cancer coming back afterwards.

In a new study published in the journal Blood in November, the researchers studied a large group of multiple myeloma patients who were given several different therapies when they relapsed after receiving a type of CAR-T cell therapy called BCMA-directed CAR-T. This version of CAR-T cell therapy targets the BCMA protein on cancerous plasma cells in order to fight multiple myeloma.

The researchers found that other therapies that engage T cells, including bispecific antibodies and other types of CAR-T cell therapy, appear to have the most pronounced success in knocking down these relapsed patients' cancer for the greatest length of time.