Lindsey Shapiro, PhD, science writer —

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted fast track and regenerative medicine advanced therapy designations to CT103A, IASO Biotherapeutics’ experimental CAR T-cell therapy for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM), the company announced. These statuses complement the orphan drug designation the treatment received from the regulatory…

Extremes in body mass index (BMI) — a ratio of weight to height that’s used to estimate a person’s healthy weight — are associated with a worse prognosis among people with multiple myeloma, according to data from more than 1,000 patients. Specifically, underweight and severely obese patients experienced a…

In people with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma following a stem cell transplant, a triple-combination maintenance therapy — of Revlimid (lenalidomide), Kyprolis (carfilzomib) and dexamethasone — significantly extended the time to disease progression or death, by 49%, compared with Revlimid alone. That’s according to an interim analysis of…

A new investigational CAR T-cell therapy, called MCARH109, demonstrated an ability to shrink or eliminate the amount of cancer in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, according to results from a dose-escalation Phase 1 trial. Safety findings showed the treatment at its highest dose was not safe for…

An upcoming clinical trial will evaluate the CAR T-cell therapy Abecma (idecabtagene vicleucel) in people newly diagnosed with multiple myeloma who had a suboptimal response to a standard stem cell transplant. Additional information about the KarMMa-9 trial, including its design and timing, will come at the earliest opportunity,…

More than 30 million people in 46 countries joined together to participate in Myeloma Action Month (MAM), a campaign in March to raise awareness of the rare blood cancer. The International Myeloma Foundation (IMF), which organized the month-long campaign, says the awareness efforts were a success and helped…

The International Myeloma Foundation (IMF) is opening its annual Myeloma Action Month (MAM) campaign with a variety of events and undertakings to raise disease awareness across the community and the public-at-large. “Action” is theme of this year’s monthlong event, held each March. “The focus for this year’s…