Haematologica (Dec 2019)

Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy for multiple myeloma: a consensus statement from The European Myeloma Network

  • Philippe Moreau,
  • Pieter Sonneveld,
  • Mario Boccadoro,
  • Gordon Cook,
  • Ma Victoria Mateos,
  • Hareth Nahi,
  • Hartmut Goldschmidt,
  • Meletios A. Dimopoulos,
  • Paulo Lucio,
  • Joan Bladé,
  • Michel Delforge,
  • Roman Hajek,
  • Heinz Ludwig,
  • Thierry Facon,
  • Jesus F. San Miguel,
  • Hermann Einsele

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3324/haematol.2019.224204
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 104, no. 12

Abstract

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Adoptive cellular therapy using chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CART) therapy is currently being evaluated in patients with relapsed / refractory multiple myeloma (MM). The majority of CAR-T cell programs now being tested in clinical trials are targeting B-cell maturation antigen. Several recent phase I / II trials show promising preliminary results in patients with MM progressing on proteasome inhibitors, immunomodulatory drugs and monoclonal antibodies targeting CD38. CAR-T cell therapy is a potentially life-threatening strategy that can only be administered in experienced centers. For the moment, CAR-T cell therapy for MM is still experimental, but once this strategy has been approved in relapsed/refractory MM, it will become one of the most important indications for this therapy in Europe and world-wide. This manuscript proposes practical considerations for the use of CAR-T cell therapy in MM, and discusses several important issues for its future development.