SAN DIEGO — Alison Cameron spent close to a decade fighting to keep myeloma under control. She’d been diagnosed with smoldering multiple myeloma, a precursor to cancer, and spent years receiving infusions to keep it from progressing to active multiple myeloma. Now, after receiving CAR-T therapy, an aggressive immunotherapy, while on a trial, the 54-year old anesthesiologist is hoping the risk of cancer is gone for good.
It’s a reasonable hope, given the results of that trial, which researchers presented at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting here on Monday. All 20 patients who received the trial treatment no longer had any detectable myeloma cells in their body. That’s a far deeper and more complete response than scientists typically expect when it comes to multiple myeloma, and it’s prompting some experts to consider the possibility these patients have truly had active cancer permanently averted.
Currently, there is only one approved therapy for high risk smoldering myeloma, an antibody therapy called Darzalex. Patients can remain on treatment for years, but without achieving these kinds of deep molecular responses, and many still progress within 5 years, said Ecaterina Dumbrava, a cancer researcher at MD Anderson Cancer Center who did not work on the study. “The results raise a very important question whether early immune interception can not only delay progression but redefine treatment goals. Can we talk about the word we always avoid, which is cure,” she said.
