New cancer treatment destroyed in bone marrow cancer cells with 73% success rate in trials

 

Future trials will focus only on doses supplied under the skin weekly or every other week.

In two clinical studies, a new therapy that triggers the immune system to destroy bone marrow cancer cells was successful in 73% of patients.

Even in individuals whose malignancy was resistant to every licensed treatment for multiple myeloma, the efficacy of an over-the-counter immunotherapy known as talaqtumab was observed. Unlike other authorized treatments, it targets a receptor called GPRC5D that is expressed on the surface of cancer cells.

Accordingly, more than a third of these patients can expect a new onset, according to Ajay Chari, MD, director of clinical research in the Multiple Myeloma Program at The Tisch Cancer Institute and lead author of both studies.


Between January 2018 and November 2021, 232 participants from various cancer centers around the world were enrolled in this Phase 1 clinical research. Future trials will focus only on doses supplied under the skin weekly or every other week, given that patients receive a variety of doses of the drug either intravenously or injected under their skin.

The drug binds to both T cells and multiple myeloma cells and instructs the T cells to kill the multiple myeloma cells. T cells are white blood cells that can be used to fight diseases.


When given standard therapy, almost all myeloma patients return repeatedly. There is an urgent need for additional therapeutic drugs for patients who develop resistance or resistance to all authorized multiple myeloma drugs because of their poor prognosis. Even though this is an early-stage experiment to gauge acceptability and establish a safe dose, this study represents a necessary step in meeting that need.

The Phase 2 trial presented at ASH confirmed the effectiveness and safety findings in the Phase 1 investigation. In the Phase 2 experiment, 145 subjects were given higher doses twice a week while 143 patients were given weekly doses.


According to Dr. Chari, the combined response rate of these two groups was about 73%. Response rates were maintained in all categories examined, except in patients with a rare form of multiple myeloma that also affects organs and soft tissue. About 60% of patients in both groups had a "very good partial response" or better, and more than 30% had a complete response or better.