Updated KarMMa Trial Results Show Durable Responses in Multiple Myeloma

Larry D. Anderson, Jr, MD, PhD, a hematologist/oncologist at the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center and an associate professor in UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology, discusses the updated results of the KarMMa trial in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

These long-term data for idecabtagene vicleucel (ide-cel, bb2121) demonstrated deep and durable remissions in a majority of patients on the trial, according to Anderson. Patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma on this trial had a median of 6 prior lines of therapy. With a median 24.8-month follow-up, the median overall survival on trial was 24.8 months also. For the 128 patients, there was a 73% overall response rate, and the median progression-free survival (PFS) was 8.6 months. Those who received the target dose of 450 million chimeric antigen receptor T cells had a median PFS of 12.2 months.

Anderson says another notable topic was the FDA label for ide-cel requires patients to have 4 prior lines of therapy while the trial only required 3 prior lines of therapy. One of the study analyses looked at efficacy for patients who received 3 prior lines versus 4 or more. There was not a significant difference in outcomes for these 2 groups.