The Future of Cellular Therapies in Earlier Lines of Multiple Myeloma Treatment
Natalie Callander, MD, University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center, Madison, Wisconsin, shares insights into cellular therapies in earlier lines of therapy in multiple myeloma treatment at the 2025 Lymphoma, Leukemia & Myeloma (LL&M) Congress in New York, New York.
Transcript:
My name is Natalie Callender and I'm a professor in medicine at the University of Wisconsin. I'm thrilled to be here at the LL&M Conference 25th anniversary.
The theme of my talk was to talk about earlier use of T-cell redirecting therapies in multiple myeloma. Now, over the past few years, [we’ve had] lots of data showing that these interventions, either bispecific engagers or CAR-T therapy, has made just tremendous progress in people with relapsed myeloma.
Initially, many types of relapses, but now we know that these therapies are useful in earlier lines. What I wanted to focus on is what's the data out there for using them either initially as part of our primary therapy for newly diagnosed myeloma, and do we have some good hints that that's going to be the wave of the future? So there've been a couple of studies presented at ASH last year, specifically MajesTEC-4 and 5.
The first one looked at use of teclistamab as part of maintenance treatment. What was presented was some safety data, but it looks spectacular with high rates of MRD negativity. Similarly, and maybe even more impressive, MajesTEC-5 used teclistamab in combination with either lenalidomide and dexamethasone or lenalidomide, dexamethasone, and bortezomib at a 100% MRD rate when assessed at 6 months. It's very hard to beat that.
We are now looking at results coming out in the next couple of years of trials that look at both bispecifics in non-transplant eligible patients, and the use of CAR T in the same population. I think a lot of the expectation is that these studies will all be positive, and will ultimately dethrone autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation for myeloma.
Source:
Callander N. Cellular Therapies in Earlier Lines: Are We Ready? Presented at Lymphoma, Leukemia & Myeloma Congress; October 14-17, 2025. New York, NY.
