COMy 2026 | Key highlights from COMy 2026: quadruplet regimens, CAR-T, bispecifics, trispecifics, and more

We are here at the 12th Congress, 12th edition of the COMy 2026 Congress, World Congress on Controversies in Multiple Myeloma, held in the beautiful city of Paris, although I must confess the weather wasn’t very good. But this was such an exciting and important meeting, actually. During three days, we had a very busy, comprehensive program going from biology of the disease into the most recent development, but also the most futuristic treatment options that we will be likely using in multiple myeloma. It will take me several hours to discuss all the topics, but I would say some of the highlights that were debated are about, for instance, the use, the increasing use, actually, of the quadruplet regimens, whether in the transplant-eligible or non-transplant-eligible patient. And there is more and more and well-established consensus that those patients who are fit, although maybe relatively old, will likely have some benefit. And this is demonstrated in randomized clinical trials from using the quadruplets. Another important parameter here that was introduced is the practicalities and the convenience for patients. And for instance, we had some discussions and good news about the on-body injector, the OBI, which is going to be approved with subcut isatuximab. Of course, we have already daratumumab, subcutaneous delivery well-established with the option now of delivery at home. As you may guess, the role of transplant is always debated, and I don’t think we have solved this issue during COMy, but it’s always good to debate a question, even if you’re not able to solve it completely. Other highlights include, of course, the use of immunotherapies, whether CAR T-cells, and it is clear that the results of cilta-cel now with long-term follow-up from CARTITUDE-1, but also from the CARTITUDE-4 trial are really impressive, and patients who are eligible to receive these CAR T-cells should definitely receive them at some point. One key issue for success is about optimization of the bridging therapy, which will allow to improve both the efficacy but also the safety after CAR T-cells. The other form of immunotherapy that has been extensively discussed is of course bispecifics but also actually trispecifics which are emerging now. So bispecific antibodies, the T-cell engagers, especially against targeting BCMA, are now moving into earlier lines of relapse and probably first relapse based on the MajesTEC-3 data, which are already published, but also based on the MajesTEC-9 trial data to be published in the near future, but also what we heard press release from the MagnetisMM-5 trial. And all of these data are suggesting that bispecifics can become the standard of care in early relapse. But we should not forget, and we had lots of discussion about the value and potential benefit of using antibody drug conjugates, namely belantamab, for instance, targeting BCMA. And there is more and more, I would say, there are more and more consolidated data in favor of using belantamab based on the DREAMM-7, DREAMM-8 data, but also other upcoming trials where this option can be an excellent one especially when it comes into having less frequent scheduling but when it comes also to less frequent scheduling well we hear more and more discussions about having longer cycles with bispecific antibodies. And obviously, this is always good news for the patient. And last but not least, if we are debating about all of these new treatment options, new combinations, their efficacy, their safety, because at the end of the day, the goal is about cure. And actually, this concept of cure in multiple myeloma has been extensively discussed and debated during the COMy 2026 annual meeting through sessions dedicated to MRD because we know that achieving MRD negativity, especially deep MRD negativity, deep and sustained MRD negativity is the backbone for any cure attempt. We had many discussions and sessions about this. We had also a joint session with the IMS, International Myeloma Society, which has pioneered a few months ago the concept and the definition of cure now to be used in multiple myeloma. We had roundtable discussions getting the expert’s opinion, but also the audience, about how to translate this concept of cure from a practical point of view with the patient in routine daily practice. So this really fantastic, a very inspiring era, very exciting era in the field of multiple myeloma because it’s not only about trying to stabilize or chronicize the disease it’s clearly now about curing the disease, but not only curing, achieving this with an excellent, very good quality of life for the patient. And at the end of the day, this is exactly the goal, allowing patient to live long, hopefully with cure, but also live long and with excellent quality of life.

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