CAR T-Cell Therapy and BiTE
- Two new immunotherapy treatments, CAR T-cell therapy and BiTE, have recently made waves in the multiple myeloma world.
- CAR T-cell therapy, or chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, is a treatment that genetically engineers a patient's own immune cells to attack cancer cells.
- BiTE, or bispecific T-cell engager, also uses a patient's own cells to fight cancer. However, in this case, the cells are not modified genetically but instead given an antibody that attaches to both the cancer cell and your T-cells (immune cells).
- Both treatments look effective, with some patients going into complete remission. However, it is important to remember that these results are based on very small clinical trials and more studies need to be done.
CAR T-Cell Therapy for Multiple Myeloma
CAR T-cell therapy, or chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, is a treatment that genetically engineers a patient’s own immune cells to attack cancer cells.
Read More“It’s a one-time treatment, with two phases taking several weeks that can offer great potential for patients, even if they’ve been through many different treatments for their multiple myeloma.”
How Effective is Car T-Cell Therapy?
CAR T-cell therapy has shown dramatic results in treating the blood cancers that are the most similar to multiple myeloma, specifically acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
One potential downside to CAR T therapy is that it can cause very severe side effects, including cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and neurotoxicity. CRS is a condition that causes fever, nausea, low blood pressure, respiratory problems, and can be fatal in some cases. Neurotoxicity can cause symptoms such as headache, confusion, and seizures.
RELATED: How Do Doctors Determine Who Can Get CAR T-Cell Therapy?
Despite these risks, CAR T-cell therapy is considered to be a very promising new treatment for multiple myeloma.
BiTE for Multiple Myeloma
BiTE (bispecific T-cell engager) also uses a patient’s own cells to fight cancer. However, in this case, the cells are not modified genetically. Instead, they are given an antibody that attaches to both the cancer cell and your T-cells (immune cells).
Once bonded, the BiTEs activate the immune cells to signal other cells to attack and destroy the cancer cells.
“BiTEs are a different form of therapy that are more continuous in nature,” Dr. Hoffman explains. “They harness the patient’s immune system using the BiTEs or the bio-specifics.”
“Patients receive these medications on some sort of regular basis, for example, every two weeks. These are molecules that have two arms to them, one arm that grabs the myeloma and another arm that grabs the T-cell and it basically introduces the T-cell to the myeloma within the individual patient.”
Unlike Car T-cell, BiTE is considered an “off the shelf” cancer therapy because the antibody used to bond to the cancer cell does not need to be tailored for each patient. This means BiTE may be a more affordable and accessible multiple myeloma treatment option in the future.
How Effective is BiTE?
BiTE is currently being studied as a treatment for several cancers, including multiple myeloma. It has shown some promising results in early studies, but more research is needed before it can be approved for use on patients.
Both treatments look effective, with some patients going into complete remission. However, it is important to remember that these results are based on very small clinical trials and more studies need to be done.
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