We kickstart the new year with a discussion on CAR T cells in myeloma treatment with a focus on the CT053, a CAR T-cell therapy targeting the BCMA protein and granted orphan drug status by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of multiple myeloma. 

CAR T- cell therapy harnesses a patient’s own immune cells to fight cancer. These therapies consist of collecting a patient’s T-cells — a type of immune cell with the ability to fight cancers — and genetically modifying them in the lab to produce a chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR, that targets a specific cancer protein.

American Society of Hematology (ASH) 2020 meeting saw CAR T cell therapies for myeloma presented and discussed at length. The Myeloma panel of Gary Petersen, Jack Aiello, and Cynthia Chmielewski is talking to Dr. Shaji Kumar of Mayo Clinic about CT053 and other CART therapies in the pipeline for myeloma treatment.