<Oncology Frontier>: Please introduce the main point of bb2121 anti-BCMA CAR T-cell therapy in patient with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

 

Prof. Diefenbach: What was presented here at ASCO 2018 was an update of data that was presented earlier in December last year in 18 multiple myeloma patients who were relapsed and refractory and heavily pretreated， and who were treated with this CAR T-cell product. The updated progression-free survival data is approximately 11 months， which is at the low end of the projected estimate for PFS for these patients. To put this into context， the average PFS for most multiple myeloma patients who have relapsed with current therapies is approximately four months， so this is certainly an improvement on standard therapy. However， compared to the response duration we see with CAR T-cells in leukemia and lymphoma with the products that are currently approved， this is of a shorter duration. It looks like more patients are relapsing over time. This does raise questions about the durability of this approach， although it still seems a substantial improvement over current therapy.

 

<Oncology Frontier>: What’s the take home message?

 

Prof. Diefenbach: The take home message is that CAR T-cells show promise in multiple myeloma. It is still early days， but we see improvements in PFS and a higher response rate with the use of CAR T-cells for patients who are relapsed and refractory to all standard therapies. However， it does not look like the problem has been completely solved as these patients are continuing to relapse. More work needs to be done.

 

<Oncology Frontier>: As Dr. Johnson mentioned， the CancerlinQ will work based on big data background， and in terms of immunotherapy for these patient， how would big data help them?

 

Prof. Diefenbach: I think big data will be helpful wherever there are mutations that are driving cancer. In multiple myeloma， we don’t really have drugs that target actionable mutations yet. In fact， when they looked at the target for these CAR T-cells， the BCMA， it didn’t seem to matter whether that was high or low for patients to have a response， so I don’t think we have a good sense yet in myeloma why some patients respond better than others to immunotherapy， and why some have a response that is durable and why some relapse quickly. Certainly， big data will help us answer some of those questions. So will delving deeper into the immunobiology of multiple myeloma. Hopefully together， those tools will help to unlock the next generation of therapies for multiple myeloma patients.