An experimental, off-the-shelf immunotherapy that combines a targeted antibody and chemotherapy can lead to potentially lasting responses in multiple myeloma patients whose disease has relapsed or is resistant to other standard therapies.
A multicenter, international trial evaluated the drug, belantamab mafodotin, and found almost a third of patients whose disease had returned after other therapies achieved a partial response or better when treated with this therapy. The researchers submitted data from 196 patients on the trial to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to consider in their drug approval process. The findings were published in Lancet Oncology.
“Our data show this therapy can make a difference for patients with multiple myeloma who have exhausted all other options, including other antibody therapies,” says the study’s senior author Adam D. Cohen, an assistant professor of hematology-oncology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center.
Read more at Penn Medicine News.
