Emerging Treatment Options in the Multiple Myeloma Space

Paul G Richardson, MD, clinical program leader and director for Clinical Research, Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center, institute physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and RJ Corman professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, discusses the ways treatment approaches for patients with multiple myeloma has changed over the past few years.

The multiple myeloma space has seen various FDA-approvals come through, including belantamab mafodotin (Blenrep), melphalan flufenamide (Melflufen), as well as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell agents like idecabtagene vicleucel (ide-cel; Abecma), and ciltacabtagene autoleucel (cilta-cel; Carvykti).

With the addition of new agents underway, Richardson hopes that further understanding of these exciting treatment updates in multiple myeloma from a research standpoint can improve patient outcomes in real-world practices.

Transcription:

0:08 | I do want to emphasize that we've got multiple new agents in the pipeline. One of the features of my presentation is around the exciting new class of drugs, called the CELMoD which are extremely powerful oral agents. That's an important practical point to share, that we're looking for real world options for our patients as well. Exciting platforms like CAR T are important, but they require hospitalization. Bispecifics are perhaps less complicated in terms of their modality, but nonetheless, they still require hospitalization, at least initially.

0:42 | When you put this all together, having the availability of oral options that we can take off the shelf in the absolute sense of the word, and deliver them to our patients in the outpatient setting, particularly in the context of the pandemic, is absolutely vital. I think that there's a lot of excitement coming with these new agents that are that much more convenient to use, and practical, as well as recognizing in myeloma anyway, that our patients, unfortunately, are uniquely vulnerable to COVID-19. For that reason, practical approaches that don't increase vulnerability to COVID-19, in every sense, are particularly important.