For 48-year old Atlanta mom, wife and dog groomer Cheri Letts, the realization she was sick came slowly. “I was starting to feel rundown, and it seemed like I had a cold that just wasn’t going away,” Letts says. She went to a series of health care practitioners, getting different diagnoses. But she was growing...Continue Reading
There are currently 10 FDA-approved treatments in the multiple myeloma space; however, a more personalized therapy could be key to finding a cure, said Nikhil C. Munshi, MD. “In 5 years, we could be bold enough to say, ‘We have cured myeloma,’” said Munshi. “Combining all the drugs we have and combining what we know...Continue Reading
Background: The refractory/relapsed multiple myeloma (RRMM) remains a big clinical challenge, due to its biological and clinical complexity. Leading hematologists have performed many randomized controlled trials (RCTs) worldwide, and their findings were summarized in a recently published network meta-analysis (NMA) but with certain limitations. Materials and methods: We performed an updated NMA of RCTs related to RRMM...Continue Reading
To fight viral infections, your immune system calls on CD8 T cells to kill the infected cells. The CD8 T cells can also be used in immunotherapy approaches to kill cancer cells, including the CAR T cell therapy currently attracting broad public attention. “The problem is that CD8 T cells are often exhausted in cancer...Continue Reading
While chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy has demonstrated positive response rates in children with relapsed and/or refractory CD19-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), severe toxicities can also be associated with such treatment. So, a group of researchers issued guidelines to help ensure these patients experience optimal outcomes. “These guidelines are meant to be a truly...Continue Reading
One of newest and most exciting approved treatments for cancer is the use of CAR-T therapy. CAR stands for chimeric antigen receptor and T stands for T-cell. Currently both Novartis (NVS) and Gilead (NASDAQ:GILD) have CAR-T therapies approved by the FDA. Axicabtagene (Yescarta) is sold by Gilead and is approved for refractory diffuse large b...Continue Reading
The human immune system is truly a wonder. It plays a critical role in our body’s defense to invading disease. Like a home security system, it is on alert 24/7/365. Through multiple mechanisms, it guards all our tissues, protects us from microbial foreign invaders, and removes cancer cells to keep us disease-free. For example, B...Continue Reading
A multidisciplinary team of researchers has developed an artificial intelligence platform that could enable doctors to prescribe personalized treatments for myeloma patients. A research group in Singapore has used artificial intelligence (AI) to identify optimized combinatorial drug treatments for myeloma, a type of blood cancer. Their methods and findings are published in Science Translational Medicine....Continue Reading
Mesothelin-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has shown early evidence of efficacy in a phase I trial of patients with malignant pleural disease and mesothelioma, non–small cell lung cancer, or breast cancer (NCT02414269). Additionally, significant responses were seen in patients who went on to receive subsequent PD-1 checkpoint inhibition treatment. Preliminary results from the...Continue Reading
The primary hurdle in the path to curing multiple myeloma (MM) is defining a validated minimal residual disease (MRD) and its utility in the therapeutic decision making. A better definition of MRD will aid in tailoring MM therapy further to address the clonal heterogeneity and genomic instability and overcome patient’s ineffective immune surveillance. MRD analysis...Continue Reading
