CAR T cell therapy for multiple myeloma: where are we now and where are we headed?

Abstract

While recent progress has been made in the management of multiple myeloma, it remains a highly fatal malignancy especially among patients with relapsed-refractory disease. Immunotherapy with adoptive T cells targeting myeloma-associated antigens are at various stages of development and have brought about a new hope for cure. This is a review on the emerging field of adoptively transferred engineered T cell based approaches, with an in-depth focus on chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) targeting multiple myeloma. The recent results from CAR T cells targeting B cell maturation antigen are encouraging but eventual resistance to the CAR T cell therapies remain problematic. With newer approaches in therapies for multiple myeloma, the role of transplantation is evolved to form a platform for T cell therapies.

Keywords:

• Multiple myeloma
• chimeric antigen receptors
• BCMA
• hematopoietic cell transplantation
• CAR
• immunotherapy
• TCR

Acknowledgements

AG is supported by NIH/NCATS Grant #UL1TR00457 administered by the Clinical and Translational Science Center at Weill Cornell Medical Center and MSKCC. ELS is supported by LRF, SITC, and an MSK Technology Development Grant. All investigators acknowledge MSK Cancer Center Support Core Grant (P30 CA008748).

Potential conflict of interest

Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10428194.2017.1393668.