Pamplona, Feb 10 (EFE).- CART lymphocyte therapy has shown for the first time in a phase III clinical trial that it significantly prolongs survival in patients with multiple myeloma who had relapsed after receiving between 2 and 4 lines of previous treatment.
This is the result of a clinical trial in which the Cancer Center Clínica Universidad de Navarra has participated, carried out in hospitals around the world and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the most impactful journals in Medicine, informs the health center in a statement.
“The treatment of this disease, the third most frequent hematological cancer, has improved significantly in recent years thanks to the incorporation of new therapies,” says Paula Rodríguez Otero, a specialist in the Hematological Cancer Area at the Cancer Center Clínica Universidad de Navarra. and first signer of the essay.
However, the expert points out, “patients whose disease relapses after two lines of prior treatment and who have already received the main drugs have an unfavorable prognosis and need new pharmacological strategies.”
Although CART therapy with the drug ide-cel is approved in patients with advanced-stage myeloma, “this study is the first to demonstrate its efficacy in a phase III trial, comparing this therapy with standard treatment in patients with early relapse who have have already been exposed to the main anti-myeloma treatments”, he points out.
The project, promoted by Bristol Myers Squibb, has had the participation of almost 20 national and international centers from 13 different countries, with the Cancer Center Clínica Universidad de Navarra being the one that has recruited the most patients.
They have randomly assigned the patients to CART therapy or standard treatment, “taking into account that the patients assigned to the control arm could receive therapy with ide-cel at the time of progression”, explains the specialist, concluding that “Standard treatment is insufficient, as the median progression-free survival observed with CART therapy exceeds 13 months, while that observed with conventional treatment is less than 4 months.”
These results support the role of CART therapy in patients with relapsed myeloma who have received at least two prior unsuccessful therapies.
In this stage of the disease, the therapeutic options are limited and suboptimal, therefore, according to Rodríguez Otero, “in light of the results of this work, CART therapy could considerably improve the situation of these patients.”
“Despite the important advances in treatment, most patients relapse and end up being resistant to the most important drugs available to date,” says Rodríguez Otero.
In this situation, new treatments with different mechanisms of action are necessary, such as CART cell therapy, which consists of “the genetic modification in the laboratory of T lymphocytes (one of the main cells of the immune system), so as to strengthen the its ability to recognize and destroy tumor cells”, explains Felipe Prósper, director of the Cell Therapy Area of the Clínica Universidad de Navarra
It is, he adds, “a therapy that is showing a very beneficial effect for treating hematological tumors in our patients.”
