Upcoming Abstracts on Multiple Myeloma for Presentation at 2021 ASH

Nina Shah, MD: There are a lot of interesting abstracts being presented at this year’s upcoming American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting. A lot of them have to do with relapsed or refractory disease. We’re going to get longer follow-up on [ciltacabtagene autoleucel] for duration of response or progression-free survival. We’re also going to learn a lot more about the bispecific T-cell engagers. Most of these have been in phase 1 [trials] with expansion cohorts, but now we have longer follow-up for some of the later molecules that have come through. Teclistamab has had the longest follow-up that we know of, but there are other molecules that are being studied and presented, and we’re going to have a better idea of those agents in the BCMA [B-cell maturation anitgen] space.

In the non-BCMA space, we’ll get longer follow-up data on things like talquetamab [JNJ-64407564], as well as cevostamab [BFCR4350A]. That’s very important for considering patients who may be having BCMA failures. In addition, there’s going to data on quality of life, and I’m excited to see that because it’s important. That’s the other outcome that we need to look at, not just response, duration of response, and PFS, but how are people feeling because if we’re doing a good job making them live longer, we certainly want them to live a happier life as well.