New antibody therapy shows promise for deadly blood cancer treatment

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An immune and cancer cell-targeting antibody therapy has shown potential to eradicate residual traces of deadly blood cell cancer, multiple myeloma, according to interim results from a clinical trial.

The trial included 18 patients who underwent up to six cycles of treatment with the antibody linvoseltamab. On highly sensitive tests, none of the patients had detectable disease, revealed the study presented at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting in Orlando, US.

The preliminary success suggests linvoseltamab -- a bispecific antibody -- could allow patients to avoid bone marrow transplants, which involve intense, high-potency chemotherapy.

It also points to the long-term potential to improve patients' odds against this disease.

"These patients received modern and effective, up-front treatment that eliminated 90 per cent of their tumour," said lead researcher Dickran Kazandjian, from the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine.

"Usually, patients like these would receive high-dose chemotherapy and transplant. Instead, we give them a treatment with the drug linvoseltamab," Kazandjian added.

The researchers called the results so far "extremely impressive" and said the disappearance of the lingering myeloma cells bodes well for patients' futures. While the new therapy can keep the disease away for years, the possibility of it returning cannot be eliminated.

Multiple myeloma arises from antibody-producing immune cells called plasma cells. These cancerous cells build up, interfering with normal blood cells and causing damage. There is no established cure.

The researchers noted that linvoseltamab binds to CD3, a protein on the T cells that destroy cancerous cells, and to a second target, BCMA, a protein on multiple myeloma cells.

By bringing these two types of cells into contact, the antibody invigorates the body's immune response to the cancer.

In the study, a few patients experienced side effects, including decreases in white blood cells called neutropenia and upper respiratory infections, but all these events fell within an acceptable safety profile, according to Kazandjian.

Based on its performance so far, researchers hoped that linvoseltamab could offer patients more durable responses than transplants, perhaps providing long-term control over the disease -- a "functional cure."

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