A novel chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy induced complete and durable responses in a phase I trial involving patients with heavily pretreated multiple myeloma.
Of 33 patients treated with bb2121, a B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-directed product, 85% achieved an objective response, reported James N. Kochenderfer, of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues.
And the agent induced complete and stringent complete responses in 9% and 36%, respectively, they wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“The exciting thing with what was reported with bb2121 is that patients truly are having deep responses,” Sarah Holstein, MD, PhD, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, told MedPage Today. “For many of these patients these responses lasted an average of about a year.”