A simple blood test that measures the number of lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell in the body, may predict whether people who have relapsed multiple myeloma are going to respond well to CAR-T immunotherapy, according to new research from Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian, Columbia University and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The paper, published online May 22 in Blood Advances , found that patients who had an increase in absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) during the first 15 days after receiving a CAR-T infusion had a higher chance of a complete response and better progression-free survival than patients with a lower ALC at day 15. Knowing that the treatment may not work allows doctors to try other options more quickly.
Multiple myeloma is a blood cancer that originates in plasma cells, a type of white blood cell found in the bone marrow. Nearly all patients who have multiple myeloma relapse at some point, meaning after an initial positive treatment outcome, the cancer returns and requires further therapy. Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell immunotherapy used to treat relapsed multiple myeloma after other drugs have failed involves collecting a patient's own immune cells and genetically modifying them to find and kill cancer cells.
The souped-up immune cells, called CAR- T cells , are infused back into the patient where they home in on BCMA, a protein found in high amounts on the surface of multiple myeloma cells. This highly active FDA-approved treatme.